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CiJEmiGHT DEPOSIT. 



MODERN PROBLEMS 
AS JESUS SAW THEM 



BY 

HERMAN HARRELL HORNE 



ASSOCIATION PRESS 

New York: 124 East 28th Street 
1918 






Copyright, 1918, by 

The International Committee of 

Young Men's Christian Associations 



APR ~4 1918 



©C1.A494461' 
/M) f 



V3 



i(6 



-^d 









To 

His Servants 

At The Sign Of 

The Red Triangle 



CONTENTS 

STUDY PAGE 

Preface vii 

I. Jesus and War i 

11. Jesus and Crime i6 

III. Jesus and the State 20 

IV. Jesus and Wealth 26 

V. Jesus and Poverty 34 

VI. Jesus and Labor 44 

VII. Jesus and Marriage 58 

VIII. Jesus and the Sabbath 63 

IX. Jesus and the Religious Authorities. 75 

X. Jesus and Social Reform 102 

XL Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven ... 120 

XII. Jesus and Missions 126 

A Few Suggested References 136 



PREFACE 

The aftermath of the great war has begun before 
the conflict has ended, notably in the Russian revolu- 
tion, in the German promise of a more democratic 
electorate, and in the movements to insure a v^orld- 
peace. The processes of social reconstruction following 
hard upon peace will probably settle many old problems 
in new ways. The old order of things has been shaken, 
in some instances destroyed, by the necessity of social 
cooperation under the strain of war. Society will not 
be satisfied to settle back into the old ways; indeed it 
cannot do so. New social habits will be formed based 
on the most stirring national experience of this gen- 
eration. In earth and sea and air new wonders have 
been seen, new marvels accomplished, new manifesta- 
tions of the power of cooperant man, both at the front 
and at home. These new experiences have suggested 
different, in some cases undoubtedly better, ways of 
doing what society must do. 

Following in the wake of the war, we may expect 
new accomplishments in the preservation of peace ; new 
definitions of international crimes; new methods of 
police force to make international law physically as 
well as morally effective ; new phases of state control of 
public utilities; new participation by the people in the 
art of self-government; new uses of money in the arts 
of both peace and war; less disparity between the in- 
come of the rich and the poor; the organisation of in- 
dustry in the interest of man rather than money; the 
tightening of morals following the demoralization of 
war ; and a better recognition of the true ends of living, 
vii 



PREFACE 

In all this social reconstruction, what part will Jesus 
play? In the main, though perhaps unconsciously, the 
new solutions will be inspired by his spirit. The bitter 
and the sweet experiences of man in war and peace 
teach the same lessons of life that he exemplified and 
announced. Those who consciously and loyally accept 
his leadership short-circuit the wander-years of life be- 
fore man comes to himself. At such a time as this, 
when human society is taking stock of life, when the 
big problems are in process of solution and more sub- 
ject to control, it is important to reexamine the socially 
significant teachings of Jesus. 

These short studies are intended to open the ear to 
the guiding voice of Jesus in a time of social confusion 
and transformation. Probably the biggest question be- 
fore the Christian churches today is, "Can Jesus save 
society?" There is an individual gospel which puts 
the person right with God and man, whatever the con- 
ditions, and there is a social gospel which makes the 
conditions of living right. The individual and the 
social gospel are two phases of the one gospel of love. 
The individual gospel emphasizes the love of man for 
God, the social gospel the love of man for man. 

Historically, the Church has emphasized the individ- 
ual gospel; it is coming also to emphasize the social 
gospel. The individual gospel, as inadequately preached, 
has aimed to get souls into heaven after death; the 
social gospel aims to get heaven into souls before 
death. The individual gospel has aimed to keep souls 
out of hell after death; the social gospel aims to keep 
hell out of souls before death. The individual gospel 
plucks souls as brands from the burning, the social 
gospel puts out the fire. 

Truly viewed, the individual gospel fills the soul with 
viii 



PREFACE 

love to God and man which, in turn, makes one an 
energy for righteousness in the world, which is social. 
Usually, the individual gospel is the cause and the 
social gospel is the effect. The reverse is sometimes 
the case, in that the doing of a Christian job by a non- 
Christian man tends to make of him a Christian. 

Each phase of the gospel needs the other. The in- 
dividual gospel gives inspiration and motive to the 
social gospel and the social gospel gives direction and 
accomplishment to the individual gospel. Without the 
social gospel the individual gospel is mystical, other- 
worldly, hopeless about human conditions; without the 
individual gospel the social gospel is narrowly humani- 
tarian and ultimately aimless. 

The writer of these pages accepts the individual gos- 
pel; he also accepts the social gospel. His proposition 
is not to substitute a social program for individual 
regeneration, but to set regenerated individuals to work 
improving human conditions. The social gospel is 
adequately based both in the life and teachings of Jesus 
and in the scientific principle of the influence of en- 
vironment on life. 

It is an interesting, even a strange, thing that many 
church people will have nbthing to do with the social 
gospel. In effect I quote the actual words of one of 
the leaders of one of the largest Protestant denomina- 
tions. He thanks God he is not "a brother to the man 
in the mire"; he will not "secularize the teachings of 
Christ"; he will have nothing to do w4th "community 
uplift," "social betterment," "human w^elfare work," 
"destroying poverty" ; he thanks God he has no "Christ 
of the back alley." This attitude is actually none other 
than that of the priest and the Levite passing by on 
the other side, leaving the work of real ministry to the 
ix 



PREFACE 

non-eccIesiastical Good Samaritan, The "pure gospel" 
is really an applied gospel. 

On the other hand, there are some social workers 
who set about improving human conditions on the basis 
of good fellowship and love of their kind without the 
religious motive, whose results are necessarily handi- 
capped by the incompleteness of their ministry. Life 
is religious at the core. The following pages are a 
protest equally against unsocialized religion and unreli- 
gious sociality. 

The Jesus here presented is he of the four evangel- 
ists — 

"A light for revelation to the Gentiles, 
And the glory of thy people Israel," 

not the Christ of dogma, theology, or criticism. Into 
his presence one comes even at the study table only 
for better or for worse. If one says that the Jesus of 
the gospel writers gives us no philosophy of life, I 
reply he gives us in practice and precept a way of life. 
If another says this Jesus of the evangelists is not the 
historic person of Nazareth, I reply he, as portrayed, 
is the ideal figure who has changed, is changing, and 
will more mightily change, the course of human history 
on our planet. If a reader of the following pages says 
justice has not been done to Jesus as the Word of God 
to man, I agree, and reply it was not attempted. These 
pages are written only as studies in the social signifi- 
cance of the life and teachings of Jesus, brief but surely 
timely and, we trust, true as far as they go. 

Facing a world bathed in its own blood and tears, 
especially that part of the world which has named the 
name of Christ and which we trusted should redeem 
the whole, I record my conviction at the conclusion of 



PREFACE 

these studies that, though Christians have failed, Chris- 
tianity has not failed; that it is more vigorous in at- 
tacking the gates of hell today than ever before; that 
human society is undergoing a refining process by fire, 
that the things which cannot be consumed may remain. 
These remaining things will be the principles of social 
reform as lived and taught by Jesus 

H. H. H. 

Leonia, New Jersey. 

March i, 1918. 



XI 



STUDY I 
JESUS AND WAR 
It is easy today to discuss the subject of war, but Maya 



Christian 
Fight? 



it is difficult to say anything final concerning it. To 
a great many people in our country, of whom I am one, 
it is an important matter to know, if possible, what 
Jesus thought about war. For our purposes a Chris- 
tian may be defined as one whose life is controlled by 
the spirit of Jesus, or one who loyally follows the prin- 
ciples of Jesus as best he can. A Christian nation 
would be one whose acts as a government were similarly 
controlled by the spirit of Jesus. Our question is, 
May a Christian man or nation under any circumstances 
go to war? And we will seek an answer from Jesus 
himself. 

First, what experience did he have with soldiers as The Experience 
a basis of his teaching about war? His life brought °^.{®!,"^,. 

, . . - . , , ,. *^ with Soldiers 

him m repeated contact with soldiers. 

Even to John the Baptist, the Herald of the King- The Words of 
dom, from whom Jesus himself received baptism, had ^^e Baptist 
soldiers on some kind of unknown service come, along 
with other classes. Their question of John was : "And 
we, what must we do?" And John, having in mind 
the current abuses of the soldiers' occupation, said unto 
them three things: "Extort from no man by violence, 
neither accuse anyone wrongfully, and be content with 
your wages." John did not tell the soldiers to dis- 
band or lay down their arms. 

There was a Roman centurion in Capernaum, a lover jesus and the 
and benefactor of the Jewish nation, perhaps a proselyte centurion 

I 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Jesus 

Arrested by 
Soldiers 



Struck by 
an Officer 



Smitten and 
Mocked by 
Officers 

Mocked by 
Herod and 
his Soldiers 



Suffered 
Grossest 
Indignities 
from Pilate* 
Soldiers 



Crucified 
by Soldiers 



to Judaism, a man who was under authority himself 
and who wielded authority over soldiers, at whose great 
faith Jesus marvelled, and whose beloved bondservant 
Jesus healed. 

Jesus was arrested by a band of soldiers and officers 
from the chief priests and the Pharisees and was car- 
ried bound before his judges, who were also his ac- 
cusers. 

In the presence of Annas, the father-in-law of the 
high priest, he was struck with the hand by one of the 
officers standing by. 

Likewise before the high priest, Caiaphas, the officers 
smote him with the palms of their hands and mocked 
him. 

Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, who was in 
Jerusalem during the passover week before the cruci- 
fixion, with his soldiers, perhaps his bodyguard, set 
Jesus at naught and mocked him. 

After Jesus had been condemned unjustly and 
scourged by vacillating Pilate, the soldiers of the 
Roman governor led Jesus into their own quarters, the 
Prsetorium, gathered the whole band, and brutally sub- 
jected him to the grossest indignities, including strip- 
ping him ; arraying him in a purple garment ; plaiting a 
crown of thorns and putting it upon his head; putting 
a reed in his right hand ; kneeling down before him and 
mocking him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews"; spit- 
ting upon him; and taking the reed and smiting him 
on the head. 

Roman soldiers led him away to crucify him, and, 
having done so, four of them parted his garments 
among them, cast lots for his seamless tunic, sat and 
watched him agonize, and mocked him still. 

After his death the Roman centurion in command 



JESUS AXD WAR 



of the crucifixion, and others, seeing his manner on 
the cross, testified in his favor. 

One soldier pierced his side w-ith a spear to make 
sure of his death, which did not have to be hastened by 
the breaking of his legs. 

The chief priests and Pharisees, having so requested 
Pilate and at his direction, set a guard of soldiers at his 
sepulchre to prevent, as they said, his disciples stealing 
away the body and then sapng he had risen from the 
dead. At the sight of the Resurrection angel, these 
'"watchers did quake and become as dead men." Later 
some of them reported to the chief priests what had 
happened, and were bribed to say the body was stolen 
by the disciples while they slept. 

So at many points the life of Jesus and the occupa- 
tion of the soldier were in contact 

Is there any evidence from the content of his teach- 
ing that he knew yet more about soldiers, war, and 
warfare ? 

The injunction: ''"Whosoever shall compel thee to 
go one mile, go with him two," was probably occasioned 
by the habit that Roman soldiers had of impressing the 
ser\-ice of a pedestrian and requiring him to carry the 
soldier's burden a mile. 

He described himself in a figure as having come not 
to bring peace on earth but a sword, indicating the 
divisions of opinion concerning the Kingdom which 
would even separate members of the same family. The 
saintly Simeon had prophesied at the presentation that 
a sword should pierce Mar\-'5 soul. 

Just before his arrest he counseled his disciples that 
he who had no sword should sell his cloak and buy 
one, perhaps also in a figure, suggesting preparation in 
soul for the tribulations awaiting them after his de- 

3 



Testified to by 
a Centurion 

Pierced by a 

Soldier's 

Spear 

His Seimlchre 
Guarded by 
Soldiers 



His Teaching 
Reveals 
Knowledge 
of War 

The Second 
Mile 



Not Peace, 
bat a Sword 



Counseled 
the Purchase 
of a Sword 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Two Swords 
Among His 
Company 



A King's 
Army 



A King's 
Council 
of War 



Prophesied 
the Siege of 
Jerusalem 



Does Jesus 

Countenance 

War? 



parture. They did not actually use swords during the 
trials of the early Church. There were two swords 
in the company at the time, perhaps for purposes of 
defense on the road to Jericho and elsewhere, which 
he said were enough. One of these was Peter's. 

In the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son, 
Jesus refers to the king, angry at the murder of his 
servants, sending his armies, destroying the murderers, 
and burning their city. We do not need to inquire here 
the spiritual meaning concealed in this account of the 
deeds of an Oriental tyrant's army or how Jesus came 
to know about such. 

In emphasizing and illustrating the importance of 
counting the cost before entering the Kingdom, Jesus 
describes a king's council of war concerning his ability 
to meet twenty thousand with ten thousand, or, failing 
that, an ambassage inquiring the conditions of peace. 

Seeing the nationalistic spirit of the Jews arrayed 
against the power of the Romans, Jesus foretold how 
the enemies of Jerusalem (showing his military knowl- 
edge) would cast up a bank about it, compass it round, 
and dash it with its little ones to the ground. This 
took place in the siege of Titus, A.D. 70. 

So the content of the teaching of Jesus, drawn in 
so many instances from military affairs, as well as his 
actual experience with soldiers, indicates at least a 
general familiarity with war. From his known famili- 
arity with the Old Testament we might also infer 
as much. 

Now what, if anything, in the teachings or the prac- 
tice of Jesus countenances war as a method of social 
action? Presently we shall be asking how Jesus dis- 
credits war. 

The first thing that may surprise us is that, having 
4 



JESUS AND WAR 

so many relationships with soldiers and knowing so Jesus Does 

much about war and its attendant horrors as an exist- Not Expiicitiy 

Condemn 
ent mode of settling difficulties, Jesus did not finally war 

and explicitly condemn all war. Jesus, like John, no- 
where commands soldiers to lay down their arms. 
That would have been an interference with the affairs 
of state, which on every occasion he studiously avoided. 

On the contrary, Jesus strictly enjoins that the Jews Rendering 
should "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." ^^^° Caesar 
The answer was given to the entrapping question con- 
cerning paying tribute unto Caesar, the answer to which 
the wily questioners thought would put Jesus in the posi- 
tion either of political disloyalty to the Romans through 
forbidding it, or religious disloyalty to the Jews through 
allowing it. Doubtless his answer, showing that 
patriotism and religion are distinct but compatible, in 
contrast with their Jewish unification, would probably 
have been similar in case the question had concerned 
the lawfulness of a Jew's being conscripted to serve 
in Caesar's army. 

He specifically taught that before the end, the con- Prophesied 
summation of the ages, nation should rise against nation ^^^ *° 
and kingdom against kingdom, and that there should 
be wars and rumors of wars, thereby indicating that 
wars were to be expected in the course of human events. 

In cleansing the Temple, Jesus made a scourge of cleansing 
cords, thus acting deliberately and not impulsively, t^e Temple 
cast out the sheep and oxen and all those that bought 
and sold there, poured out the changers' money, and 
overthrew their tables and the seats of those that sold 
doves, and suffered no one to carry a vessel through 
the Temple. Such action required physical as well 
as moral force and courage, indicating doubtless not 
merely the temporary cleansing of the Temple of the 

5 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



A Hj^o- 

thetical 

Question 

about the 

Good 

Samaritan 



The Fighting 
Quality of 
Jesus 



profanation of a double system of graft, based on first 
exchanging the money of visitors to the feast and then 
selling them the sacrificial animals, but also sym- 
bolically the permanent ending of the sacrificial system. 
Here was, negatively, deliberate and aggressive physical 
and moral attack thoroughly carried out, on a den of 
robbers profaning the Temple, and, positively, rearing 
in place of the abused sacrificial system the principle 
of worship in prayer. 

So Jesus felt about the desecration of the Temple by 
the den of thieves. In this connection we may properly 
raise the question, in telling the story of the Good 
Samaritan, if Jesus had introduced the priest, the 
Levite, and the Good Samaritan as coming on the scene 
while the band of thieves were beating their victim 
half to death, what would have happened? Would the 
Good Samaritan have stood pacifically by, waiting to 
remedy wounds he may have had the power to prevent? 
Could the Christ who single-handed cleaned out the 
den of temple robbers present such a picture of inane 
goodness facing highway robbers? Of what use were 
the two swords carried by the company of disciples? 
we may ask. Were they made of wood and only for 
show? or, was the idea that of self-defense before 
ruffians of the open country? 

Jesus does not impress us as being anemic and pas- 
sively good, but as strong with the strength of the 
carpenter's frame, red-blooded from life in the open, 
self-controlled always, but capable of a flaming right- 
eous indignation against evil, which at times spent it- 
self otherwise than in words. With all his mental and 
moral force he opposed the religious legality, formal- 
ism, superficiality, and hypocrisy of the religious leaders 
of his day. It finally cost him his life, as he very well 

6 



JESUS AND WAR 

knew in advance that it would. He laid that down, not 
without an agonizing struggle, but willingly, in the 
fulfilment of his mission to bear witness to the truth. 
He never compromised with evil, he never ceased to 
make war on it, and he never made peace with it, 
though at the Temptation he felt that the price offered 
was temporal rulership of all the nations of the world. 

While these facts may not clearly justify a Chris- No Clear 
tian man or nation in going to war, they significantly Condemna- 
prevent the quick condemnation of all war, so long -y^ar in the 
at least as righteous principles require defense from Practice and 
attack. When humanity, the true sanctuary of God, ^®<=®Pto* 
is being desecrated. Christian men and nations may 
well remember their Captain. 

On the other hand, what in the practice and teach- What in Jesus 

ings of Jesus opposes war? Discredits War? 

He recognizes himself not as destroying but as ful- He is the 
filling the law and the prophets, a part of whose dream ???®*^*^ 
had concerned the Prince of Peace who should come 
and the time when the peoples "shall beat their swords 
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : 
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
shall they learn war any more" (Isa. 2: 4). 

At his birth the angels sang of "peace on earth among The Angels* 
men of good will," the only kind of men on earth among Sons at the 
whom there can possibly be peace. This song of the ^ ^ 
angels reflects the influence on the imaginative, poetic, 
beloved physician, Luke, of the ultimate significance 
of the coming of Jesus. And the song was for the 
shepherds, one of the working classes, who suffer most 
from war. 

Between individual members of the Kingdom at Non- 
least, he taught the doctrine of non-resistance to evil, Resistance 
turning the other cheek to the smiter, giving the cloak 

7 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Deeds 

Interpret 

Words 



Love of 
Enemies 



Perishing by 
the Sword 



also to a man adjudged the coat in a suit at law — 
an injunction which caused the literalistic pacifist, 
Count Tolstoy, to reject all courts of justice — and 
going a second mile voluntarily with the man who 
compels one to go a mile with him. 

However, in the trial before Annas, when one of 
the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand and 
said: "Answerest thou the high priest so?" Jesus did 
not literally turn the other cheek, but, without physical 
resistance, answered him, with moral resistance, "If 
I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil : but if well, 
why smitest thou me?" (John i8: 23). This incident 
suggests to us that the deeds of Jesus must be used 
in truly understanding his words, and also his own 
saying : "The words that I speak unto you, they are 
spirit and they are life" (John 6: 63). 

Jesus rejected the very ancient law of retaliation, 
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and substituted 
therefor the principle of love for. one's enemies, which 
he exemplified in declining to call down fire from heaven 
on an inhospitable Samaritan village— a method he 
would not have used, even if he had desired to retaliate, 
having at the Temptation definitely rejected such 
draughts on the supernatural in self-service. Most 
notably he exemplified his teaching of love for enemies 
in praying on the cross for his executioners: "Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do." This 
principle would at. least seem to exclude reprisals in 
warfare. 

He taught that those who appeal to the sword should 
perish by the sword, probably stating a general prin- 
ciple of the inefficiency of the appeal merely to physical 
force, not applicable exclusively to Oriental tyrants. 
The words were addressed to Peter at the arrest. 

8 



JESUS AND WAR 

The worst to be done to a sinning brother who had Treatment 
refused personal reconciliation, mediation through wit- °* *^® 



Si „ 

nesses, and even the counsel of the congregation, Brother 

was to treat him as the Gentiles and the collectors 
or renters of Roman taxes were commonly treated, that 
is, have no dealings with him, or break off all rela- 
tions (Matt. i8: 17). 

In an age when breaking the peace was the usual The Peace- 
way for a nation to secure what it wanted, Jesus pro- °^ersare 
nounced blessing on the peace-makers, who should 
be known in the Kingdom as the children of God. It 
is probable that the first intent of this beatitude con- 
cerned peace-making between individuals. 

Jesus himself, until he recognized that his hour for Jesus 
personal surrender to the forces of evil had come, p^^^**^ 
avoided personal physical violence by escaping the Physical 
scene of disturbance. His fellow-citizens in Nazareth Violence 
cast him forth out of the city in wrath at his first 
sermon in the synagogue, but, when they would throw 
him headlong down from the brow of the hill whereon 
their city was built, he passed through the midst of 
them and went his way. When the Jews took up 
stones to cast at him because of his saying: "Before 
Abraham was, I am," Jesus hid himself and went out 
of the Temple (John 8: 59). Again when they sought 
to take him following his refutation of the charge of 
blasphemy, he went forth out of their hand (John 10: 

39). 

Likewise he instructed his disciples, "when they Flee 
persecute you in this city, flee into the next" (Matt. 10: Persecution 
23). So would they be "harmless as doves." 

On the occasion of his arrest by consent, he refused Non-Resist- 
to call for the twelve legions of angels he felt available ^nceatthe 
through prayer to his Father, in accordance with his 

9 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



His 

Kingdom not 
Temporal 



What 

ShaUWe 

Conclude? 



No Physical 
Force in 
Self-Defense 
Actually 



Physical 
Force in 
Defense of 
Principle 
Against Evil 



original decision at the Temptation to be a suffering 
Messiah and not to use miracles in his own behalf. 
He also refused to meet physical force with physical 
force. He commanded the resisting Peter to sheath his 
sword, and he healed the severed ear of Malchus, the 
servant of the high priest. His hour had come. The 
Scriptures must be fulfilled. He must drink the cup 
which the Father gave him. 

Before Pilate, the representative of the Roman em- 
pire, Jesus testified : "My kingdom is not of this world : 
if my kingdom were of this world, then would my 
servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the 
Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence" (John 
i8: 36). He was no temporal deliverer of the Jews, 
winning his way by warfare against superior numbers, 
as the Maccabees had done. The method of establish- 
ing, maintaining, and extending his Kingdom was not 
that of the sword. 

Thus we have reviewed what in the practice and pre- 
cept of Jesus seems to credit and what to discredit the 
appeal to arms. What shall we conclude? Perhaps the 
best thing is to let each Christian conscience decide for 
itself. What follows must be viewed as a personal 
conclusion, not binding on those unconvinced by it. 

Jesus never used physical force to defend himself 
from personal attack, though his company with the two 
swords may conceivably have done so. When possible, 
Jesus himself avoided such attacks by escape; when 
not possible he used only moral, not physical, resist- 
ance, rebuking such injustice. 

Jesus did use physical, as well as moral, force onceV 
at least in attacking entrenched evil. In defense of him- 
self, non-resistance; in defense of his righteous prin- 
ciples, resistance, and even aggressive attack. He 

10 



JESUS AND WAR 

voluntarily sacrificed his life in throwing himself with 
all his intellectual, moral, and spiritual force against 
the hypocritical religious leaders of his day. From 
the nature of the case physical force here would have 
availed nothing ; he used the most effective forces. He 
realized he was doing this to make the members of his 
Kingdom free from legalism, and announced the prin- 
ciple : "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man 
lay down his life for his friends" (John 15: 13). His 
sacrifice was in defense of his principles and in love 
of others whom he would make free indeed from legal- 
istic bondage. 

Jesus gave not a set of rules, forbidding this, as Jesus Gave 
though he had said, "You shall never go to war," or *^^5^' 
commanding that, as though he had said, "You shall 
go to war under the following circumstances." His 
contribution is the spirit of love as shaping human con- 
duct. Love of one's brother is the counterpart of 
hatred of whatsoever oppresses one's brother. Use your 
Christian conscience and do as you must is perhaps the 
final answer to the question. This is the liberty where- 
with Christ hath set us free from religious legalism. 

A Christian may fight, as Jesus used physical force A Christian 
in cleansing the Temple, in case he fights in love — May Fight 
love of God, His righteousness on the earth, and one's 
brother man. A Christian nation may fight, if animated 
by the same motive of love. The love of righteousness 
at any cost is not consistent with the cause of peace at 
any price. It involves hatred of wrong, not of wrong- 
doers, and consequent action of the most effective 
quality against it. It is possible to fight evil and love 
the evil-doer, though it is not easy, nor often the case. 

This spirit of love of righteousness, though costly. Ultimate 

will in time eUminate war. Such is our faith. Despite Elimination 

^ of War 
II 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



H3rpo thesis 
of a National 
Crucifixion 



The Sword 
of Justice 



World- 
Solution 
or None 



the lack of any clear prohibition of war, the weight of 
the position of Jesus is decidedly against war ultimately. 
If all men and nations were real friends, there could 
be no war. 

It is possible that the world will not be rid of war till 
a Christian nation, relying only on non-physical forces 
of the highest spiritual quality, submits to crucifixion, 
as it were — that is, to unresisted violation of national 
integrity. It is not clear that even this procedure 
would be effective, as a cannibal does not cease to be 
a cannibal through consuming an unresisting mission- 
ary. A governess in the Tolstoy family relates the 
incident of Tolstoy's little girl running in crying to 
her father, with the entreaty that he do something to 
the neighbor's boy who had badly beaten her. Tolstoy 
took his little girl on his lap and persuaded her to give 
the boy some bread, butter, and jam. The governess 
was unable to follow up the influence of so ideal an 
act on the character of the boy. A spiritual friend of 
mine was yet so carnally minded as to suggest that 
the boy knew what to do the next time he wanted jam, 
bread, and butter. 

Justice has a sword, and it is not made of wood. 
Mercy forgives, but only at a cost. Only mushiness 
forgives at no cost. Jesus was crucified, yet there are 
murders still, perhaps even judicial ones like his. Yet 
there is progress, though slow, and such progress might 
be vastly accelerated by the shameful tragedy of a 
national crucifixion. 

The elimination of war can come about only on the 
basis of good will among all men — however brought 
about — universal Christianity in practice if not in form, 
some plan of amicable internationalism. The earth 
through modern invention is now so small and unified 



Resistance 
Dievitable 



JESUS AND WAR 

that no nation can either live or die to itself. As an 
individual can be only partially saved in an unsaved 
society, so a nation can be only partially saved in an 
unsaved world. 

Meanwhile we rely on police force to prevent dis- Use of 
turbance of the peace. There is no effective interna- ^°^^^ 
tional law, because there are no international police 
and no adequate international sentiments. We rely on 
our diplomats also not to jeopardize our patriotism by 
putting our country in a wrong position. The men who 
inspire diplomacy and movements for world peace with 
Christian principles are themselves men inspired by 
Christ. 

We do not know what Jesus would have done had Certain 
a band of ruffians attacked his sisters and his mother 
in their Nazareth home, but we can imagine. It is not 
likely that even a converted and redeemed man will 
ever tamely submit to such. It is certainly dirty busi- 
ness attacking any human being, even one who is in- 
juring the innocent and helpless; it is dirtier business 
— is it not? — standing idly by, and, by inaction, con- 
senting to the deed. 

If a Christian ever shoulders a rifle or buckles on a Emotions 

sword as a soldier, he does so with love and sadness o^a ^iK^ting 

Chnstian 
in his heart, but with a soul aflame in righteous wrath 

against oppressive evil, and with a prayer to God that 
the time be shortened. He bears no enmity against the 
individual foe confronting him, whom he attacks only 
as a misguided person representing an iniquitous sys- 
tem. He is slain by his fellow, or slays him, as a part 
of the world-tragedy of the conflict between good and 
evil. If we may so express it, God will never make 
peace with the Evil One except on the basis of uncon- 
ditional surrender ; meanwhile the conflict goes on with 

13 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



A Christian's 
Conscience 
His Guide 



Historic 
Aspects 
of the 
Question 
Omitted 



The 

Christian 

Soldier 



men as agents, and the Devil has to be fought with 
jfire. 

Of course, individual good men may mistakenly 
represent an evil system and individual bad men may 
represent a good system, but Christian men will go 
to war only for righteous and against unrighteous prin- 
ciples, as revealed by a clear conscience. In actual 
war such a man may be relatively inefficient, in violating 
any of the accepted rules of the game of death. 

There is no occasion now for going into the historic 
aspects of the question and showing how military 
imagery has influenced the form of Christian teaching, 
as when St. Paul says: "Fight the good fight of faith" 
(I Tim. 6: 12); or how the famous Christian songs 
bear the military stamp, as "Onward, Christian Sol- 
diers," "Stand Up, Stand Up, for Jesus," "The Son of 
God Goes Forth to War," etc., or how different bodies 
of Christians have never accepted the doctrine of peace 
at any price, except perhaps a few literalists like George 
Fox and Count Tolstoy. 

As indicative of the spirit in which it is possible for 
a Christian to be a soldier, I append the following poem, 
entitled "German Prisoners," by Joseph Lee, which 
appeared first in the London Spectator: 



When first I saw you in the curious street, 
Like some platoon of soldier ghosts in gray. 
My mad impulse was all to smite and slay, 
To spit upon you — ^tread you 'neath my feet. 
But when I saw how each sad soul did greet 
My gaze with no sign of defiant frown, 
How from tired eyes looked spirits broken down. 
How each face showed the pale flag of defeat, 
And doubt, despair, and disillusionment, 

14 



JESUS AND WAR 

And how were grievous wounds on many a head. 
And on your garb red- faced was other red ; 
And how you stooped as men whose strength was spent, 
I knew that we had suffered each as other, 
And could have grasped your hand and cried, "My 
brother 1" 



15 



STUDY II 



Sin and 
Crime 



The Life 
of Jesus 
and Crime 



JESUS AND CRIME 

Wherever Church and State are separate institutions, 
it is important to distinguish between sin as violation 
of divine law and crime as violation of human law. 
Before the high priests Jesus was accused of saying 
he was able to destroy the temple of God and build it 
again in three days — a garbled and misunderstood re- 
port of his words about the resurrection, though the 
priests and Pharisees who requested from Pilate a 
guard for the sepulchre knew well what Jesus meant. 
Before these he was also accused by the high priest 
himself of speaking blasphemy in calling himself "the 
Son of the Blessed" (Mark 14 : 6i ) . These were charges 
of sin. Before Pilate he was accused of stirring up the 
people, forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar, and mak- 
ing himself a king (Luke 23: 2, 5) — ^the second charge 
being false, and the first and third misinterpretations. 
These were charges of crime. It was only as a criminal, 
not as a sinner, that Jesus was heard by Pilate, and even 
so, Pilate tried to turn him over to the unwilling Jews 
to be tried by their religious law. Under this theocratic 
law all offenders were rated as "sinners," though today 
some of these offenders would be ranked with criminals 
and tried in the civil courts, e. g. the adulterous woman 
(John 8: i-io). 

Having in mind those offenses that today would 
properly be regarded as crimes as well as sins, we say 
that the life of Jesus was not unrelated to crime and 
criminals. Even when he was an infant the jealous, 

16 



JESUS AND CRIME 

murderous Herod the Great had slaughtered the inno- 
cents, seeking his life. At the outset of his ministry 
he was himself tempted to sedition against Rome as a 
temporal deliverer of his people. The wicked and 
wanton murder by Herod Antipas of the Baptist, than 
whom, said Jesus, none greater had arisen among those 
born of women, so impressed him that he "withdrew 
from thence" (Matt. 14: 13). For some two years, mur- 
derous intent against his own life was cherished by the 
hierarchy. His fellow Nazarenes sought to hurl him 
headlong down their cliff. He was warned that Herod 
Antipas, the "fox," sought his life. He came into 
active conflict with the money grafters in the temple. 
At the end he was the victim of a murderous con- 
spiracy, the chief priests and the elders of the people 
coming together in the very court of the high priest 
Caiaphas and taking counsel together that they might 
take Jesus by subtilty and kill him (Matt. 26: 3). 
This iniquitous purpose, through base betrayal, was 
accomplished. Annas sent Jesus to Caiaphas bound as 
a common prisoner. So Jesus was personally not un- 
acquainted with crime, as it intimately affected his own 
life. 

Besides, there were five criminals with whom he had Five 
intimate associations, vis. the Samaritan woman; the Criminals 
woman taken in adultery ; Herod Antipas, before whom 
he was carried at the trial; and the two crucified 
thieves. He must have known also of the release of 
Barabbas and the fate of Judas. 

The content of his teaching includes references to References 
thieves breaking through and stealing, to robbers on ^ Crimes 
the road to Jericho, to being cast into prison by the 
officer, to persecutions and false charges, to being de- 
livered up to synagogues and prisons, to the misap- 

17 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Three 
Teachings 
Applicable 
to Crime 



How Jesus 
Dealt With 
Criminals 



Summary 



propriation of funds by the unjust steward, to the 
tormentors into whose hands the unmerciful servant 
falls, to the commandments which would enable the 
young ruler to enter into life, namely, avoiding the 
sins of murder, adultery, stealing, false witnessing, 
and defrauding. 

There are three general teachings of his which have 
peculiar application to the criminal, viz. we are not to 
judge (Matt. 7:1); out of the heart are the issues of 
life, "For from within, out of the heart of men, evil 
thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adul- 
teries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, 
an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness" (Mark 7: 21, 
22) ; and the necessity of the new birth (John 3:3). 

What does the example of Jesus as he dealt with 
criminals teach us? He dealt not so much with crime 
as with individual criminals. He revealed her better 
self to the Samaritan woman; he declined to condemn 
the woman taken in adultery, though enjoining her to 
go and sin no more (the sinner who anointed him at the 
feast of Simon the Pharisee may have been another 
such) ; he stood in silent condemnation before the mur- 
derer Herod; he received in silence the reviling of 
one crucified thief and encouraged the beginning of 
good in the other. He identified himself with all those 
in prison (Matt. 25 : 43), thus indicating some goodness 
in each most criminal heart, to which Peter adds that 
Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison (I 
Pet. 3: 19). To John in prison he sent a comforting 
message (Luke 7: 22). His life fulfils the promise of 
the first sermon in Nazareth, that he came to proclaim 
"liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
to them that are bound" (Luke 4: 18). 

To sum up, if we follow Jesus as standard, in deal- 
18 



JESUS AND CRIME 

ing with criminals we are not to judge; we are to work 
for the cleansing of the heart; we are to uncover the 
better nature and secure its rebirth; we are to forgive 
and not condemn, which means the restoration of right 
relationship, not necessarily the remission of penalty; 
we are to encourage efforts at self-recovery; we are 
to visit those in prison, brethren of his, as unto him. 
Thus, without having been a prison-reformer, not even 
condemning casting into prison for debt, Jesus is the 
greatest inspirer of that prison reform, the simple 
philosophy of which, according to Thomas Mott Os- 
borne, is: every prisoner has a good side, find it, and 
appeal to it. 



19 



STUDY III 
JESUS AND THE STATE 

The Life of Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem on a mission of 

■^h^"c ^°* ^^^^^ when Jesus was born, going there in accordance 

with the decree of Caesar Augustus that all the world 
should be enrolled. Every one in the Roman province 
of Palestine went to his family city, according to the 
Jewish custom, Bethlehem being the city of David, to 
whose family Joseph belonged. Sages of the East, 
whether kings or priests the story does not make clear, 
are presented as worshiping the infant Jesus. Through 
the jealous enmity of Herod the Great, king of the 
Jews under Roman authority, the flight into Egypt is 
pictured. Under the rule of Herod Antipas in Galilee, 
the Nazareth home was established. The boyhood and 
youth of Jesus were spent in a community governed 
by a Jewish tetrarch under the authority of imperial 
Rome. He became familiar with the import taxes, the 
"customs," collected by Jews from their brethren for 
their Roman masters, and with the social prejudice 
against the collectors, "the publicans," which associated 
them with "sinners." He became familiar also with 
the land, property, and poll taxes payable by Jews as 
Roman subjects into the imperial treasury, collected 
through the agency of the Jewish courts, for which 
purpose Joseph had been enrolled in Bethlehem, that 
is, "the tribute to Caesar." He was familiar, too, with 
the patriotic question arising therefrom in a theocratic 
state, whether such tribute was right. 

20 



JESUS AND THE STATE 

He drew illustrations of his spiritual teaching from lUustrations 
the affairs of state. He contrasted the ideal of great- ^^"^^ '^o™ 
ness as service in his Kingdom with that of lordship ^^ state 
among the nations ; in showing the importance of count- 
ing the cost before entering the Kingdom he refers to 
a king's council of war; in teaching the lesson of set- 
tling disagreements quickly with one's adversary he 
refers to the actions of the council and the judge; he 
knew about the custom of Roman soldiers compelling 
pedestrians to carry their packs; he foretold the de- 
struction of Jerusalem; he knew about the kings of 
earth receiving toll or tribute from strangers, not their 
own sons, about their making a marriage supper for 
their sons, and about those in kings' palaces being 
clothed in fine linen and purple. He was thus not only 
acquainted with the general customs and machinery of 
civil government, but also repeatedly drew illustrations 
therefrom. 

At the last, though studiously avoiding giving any His Death 
offense whatsoever to the civil power, seeing no neces- ^^ ^^ 
sary conflict between his Kingdom and Caesar's, the one ^ 
being spiritual and the other temporal — though the one 
was destined in time to "leaven" the other — he had to 
face as an arrested criminal the civil power in the 
persons of Herod and Pilate, under the false charge 
of forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar and the mis- 
taken charge of "saying he is Christ, a king" (Luke 
23: 2). 

Before the immoral monster Herod, the drunken mur- Before 
derer of the Herald of the Kingdom, Jesus was elo- Herod 
quently silent, though Herod questioned him in many 
words, having heard concerning him and for a long 
time having desired to see him and perhaps witness a 
miracle done by him (Luke 23:8, 9). Then Herod 

21 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Before 
Pilate 



They Did 
Unto Him 
What They 
Would 



and his soldiers set him at naught, and mocked him, 
and arraying him in gorgeous apparel sent him back 
to Pilate. And the Jewish Herod and the Roman Pilate, 
though at enmity before, became friends that day 
(Luke 23: 12). 

Before Pilate, in the presence of the whole Jewish 
council accusing him of perverting the nation, for- 
bidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he 
himself is Christ, a king, Jesus answered nothing. When 
Pilate in their presence said: "Hearest thou not how 
many things they witness against thee?" Jesus did 
not answer him one word, so that the governor 
marvelled greatly (Matt. 27: 13, 14). Within the palace 
alone with Pilate, Jesus answered his question with 
dignity and respect, affirming that his Kingdom was not 
of this world, else would his disciples fight that he 
should not be delivered to the Jews; affirming also 
that he was a king in the kingdom of truth, adding the 
personal thrust : "every one that is of the truth heareth 
my voice," which strengthened wavering Pilate for a 
moment (John 18: 36, 37). Speaking for the state, 
Pilate went out and announced to the Jews: "I find 
no crime in him." But the urgent voices of the envious 
that he be crucified prevailed over the judgment of the 
judge, wishing to content the multitude. 

By the soldiers of the state, at the command of the 
reluctant though weak and favor-courting Pilate, Jesus 
was scourged, mocked, spit upon, and smitten on the 
head with a reed. After such cruel indignities Pilate, 
superstitious and fearful, asked Jesus, "Whence art 
thou?" to which Jesus gave no answer. Then Pilate 
asked, "Knowest thou not that I have power to release 
thee, and have power to crucify thee?" upon which 
Jesus reminded him that he would have no power 

22 



JESUS AND THE STATE 

against Him, except it were given him from above 
(John 19: 10, 11). Pilate's effort to conciliate the chief 
priests being in vain, when he might have freed an 
innocent man by a word of authority, he delivered 
him unto them to be crucified. The soldiers of the 
state took off from Jesus the royal purple wherein in 
mockery they had arrayed him, put his own garments 
on him, and led him away to crucify him. At Golgotha 
they offered him wine mingled with myrrh, but he 
would not drink it, declining to meet death with a dim 
consciousness. As they crucified him, Jesus prayed for 
their forgiveness. 

With his own hand Pilate wrote the accusation: The 
"This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," sug- Crucifixioii 
gesting his line of defense, should the matter come to 
Caesar's ears, though thereby giving offense to the chief 
priests. The soldiers divided his garments among them, 
casting lots for the seamless tunic ; they sat and watched 
him there ; they also mocked him, coming to him, offer- 
ing him vinegar, and saying, in imitation of the chief 
priests, rulers, scribes, and elders: "If thou art the 
King of the Jews, save thyself" (Luke 23: 37). 

The centurion and those with him watching Jesus, The Broken 
when they saw how he gave up his spirit, testified: ^°^^ 
"Certainly this was a righteous man" (Luke 23: 47). 
The soldiers did not need to break the legs of Jesus to 
hasten his death, he being dead already from a broken 
heart, though one of the soldiers with a spear pierced 
his side. Pilate granted the body of Jesus to Joseph 
of Arimathea. 

At the request of the chief priests and Pharisees, The Guard 
the entombed body of Jesus was watched by a guard °^^^ 
of soldiers set by Pilate, who were later bribed to say ®p ^ ® 
the body was stolen by the disciples. "So they took the 

23 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



His Good 
Citizenship 



His 

Teaching 
Concerning 
the SUCe 



money, and did as they were taught" (Matt. 28: 15), 
at which point the personal association of Jesus with 
the civil power ceased, though his spirit is still trans- 
forming it. 

Here was a life begun, continued, and ended under the 
influence of the civil state, whose fortunes were most 
intimately interwoven with the ruling, though unpro- 
tecting, temporal power, whose whole attitude was one 
of conformity to the laws, paying the taxes, declining 
to be a successor of the Maccabees, passing no con- 
demnation upon the machinery of government; on the 
contrary, using tliese things to illustrate spiritual truths, 
thus recognizing their place in life; showing respect 
to the office, if not the officer of the government in the 
case of Herod; winning the sympathy of Pilate; sub- 
mitting without other than moral protest to the mockery 
of a just trial, to an unjust sentence of death, even to 
death on the accursed tree, and in no respect failing 
as a subject of Rome. It were vain to question his 
good citizenship. 

What did Jesus teach concerning the state? That 
one could be patriotic and religious at the same time 
without necessary conflict, that to be religious one does 
not have to cease rendering tribute unto Caesar, that 
to be patriotic, one does not have to cease rendering 
unto God the things that are God's. Some things are 
Caesar's and some things are God's. Each set of duties 
is to be fulfilled. Jesus apparently carefully avoided 
giving offense to the civil powers either in act or in 
word. He gives no direct teaching whatever con- 
cerning the state, except what is called out of him by 
an entrapping question, though his answer indicates 
definite thought and conviction on the subject. As so 
often, St. Paul has given as direction what might be 

24 



JESUS AND THE STATE 

taken as literal description of the life of Jesus: "Put 
them in mind to be in subjection to rulers, to authori- 
ties" (Titus 3:1). Unlike Plato, Jesus was neither a 
theoretical nor a practical reformer of government, 
though, through the might of the new spirit he released 
in human society, the Roman government within three 
centuries was nominally Christian. 



25 



STUDY IV 



The Contact 
of Jesus 
With Wealth 



Money a 
Frequent 
Theme in 
His Teaching 



JESUS AND WEALTH 

The life of Jesus brought him into touch with a num- 
ber of men of wealth and enabled him to observe the 
influence of great possessions on character. Some of 
the disciples themselves were not without means. Peter 
owned a house in Capernaum in which he entertained 
the Master. Zebedee, the father of James and John, 
had a boat with nets on the Sea of Galilee and hired 
servants. After the crucifixion Peter and six other 
disciples returned to their fishing boats and nets. Jesus 
abode one day at the house of Zaccheus, "a rich man," 
and commended him for his use of his wealth, only 
half of which Zaccheus retained. His friend Lazarus, 
whom he loved, had a home in Bethany, and his sister 
Mary made a costly offering to Jesus. Simon the 
Pharisee and Simon of Bethany, who may be the same, 
entertained him in their homes. He received minis- 
trations from the substance of women of means, Joanna 
and Susanna and "many others" (Luke 8:3). A rich 
young ruler came to him for guidance in the way of 
life. Nicodemus, who came to him by night for fear 
of the Jews, brought a costly offering for his burial. 
And Joseph, a rich man of Arimathea, begged his 
crucified body from Pilate. So Jesus had intimate con- 
tact with men of means. 

The teaching of Jesus abounds in references to money 
and its problems. He refers to those gorgeously ap- 
parelled and living dehcately in kings' houses. He 
describes Dives as clothed in purple and fine linen and 

36 



JESUS AND WEALTH 

faring sumptuously every day. The father of the 
Prodigal Son divides his living between him and the 
elder brother. This parable incidentally shows the 
misuse of money. The parable of the Unjust Steward 
teaches the prudent use of money. The parables of the 
Talents and the Pounds use financial relations to illus- 
trate spiritual ones. Though Jesus and the disciples 
had a common purse — probably as a matter of con- 
venience, hardly in imitation of the Pharisee sect of the 
Essenes — one of his parting injunctions to the disciples 
was: "He that hath a purse, let him take it" (Luke 
22: 36). He even pronounces woe on the rich and the 
full (Luke 6: 24, 25), though such passages must be 
correlated with the whole of his teaching. It is evi- 
dent that money and its problems entered largely into 
the content of his teaching. 

Now what does Jesus teach about wealth? A num- Source 
ber of things. First, as to the source of wealth. Both °* Wealth 
the talents and the pounds — the capital with which they 
begin business — are conferred upon the servants by 
their lord. To this capital, by their own effort, they 
make additions. It was the ground of the rich man that 
brought forth plentifully, causing him to pull down his 
barns and build greater. Money is referred to in the 
parable of the Unjust Steward as "that which is an- 
other's" (Luke 16: 12). These teachings all indicate 
that the effort of man in the production of wealth pre- 
supposes the gift of God in initial capacities and en- 
vironing opportunities. Similarly Jesus taught his 
disciples to pray for the daily bread to God, who also 
clothes even those of little faith. The origin of wealth 
is thus human effort utilizing the gifts of God. 

Closely connected with the origin of wealth is the Relative 
question of its real value. "What shall it profit a 1^^^^^ 

27 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

man," asks Jesus, "if he gain the whole world and lose 
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul?" (Mark 8: 36, 37). One must 
renounce all that he hath to follow Jesus (Luke 14: 
33), including "lands," as Matthew, James and John, 
and Peter and Andrew left all and followed, though 
such shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, with 
persecutions (Mark 10: 30). The rich but covetous 
young ruler must sell all his goods and give to the 
poor and then come and follow. A man is of more 
value than a sheep and than many sparrows, two of 
which are sold for a farthing. Money is the "very 
little" in which we may prove ourselves faithful. The 
treasures of earth are corruptible by moth and rust 
and thieves; those of heaven are incorruptible. The 
Rich Fool made the mistake of laying up treasure for 
himself instead of being rich toward God. "A man's 
life consisteth not in the abundance of things that he 
possesseth" (Luke 12: 15). Seeing the newly pur- 
chased field or proving the five yoke of oxen are un- 
worthy excuses for slighting the invitation to the sup- 
per. Going to one's farm or one's merchandise instead 
of to the marriage feast of the king's son makes one 
unworthy the invitation. A fat purse is no compensa- 
tion for a lean soul. "The life is more than food" 
(Matt. 6: 25). "Make for yourselves purses which wax 
not old" (Luke 12: 33). It is evident that the value 
of money to Jesus is relative, not absolute. However 
much it may be a standard of physical values, to him 
it is no standard of spiritual values. He does not 
intimate that money is without value, but only that it 
has no absolute value. 
Some Right Since money does have a relative value, to what uses 

Uses of Money j^^^^y [^ properly be put? One should give alms to the 



JESUS AND WEALTH 

poor, even selling what one has for the purpose (Luke 
12: 33); support one's needy parents without any 
subterfuge of Corban (Mark 7: 11); relieve those in 
distress as did the Good Samaritan; minister to the 
hungry, thirsty, and naked, as do the righteous as pic- 
tured in the last judgment; buy food as did the disciples 
in the Samaritan city ; cast it freely and generously into 
the treasury as did the widow her two mites; make 
friends with it as did the unjust steward; trade with 
it and earn its double for the master as did the faithful 
servants; make costly offerings in devotion not neces- 
sarily utilitarian in character as did Mary (upon whose 
precious spikenard the pilfering Judas set a value of 
about fifty dollars) and the sinful woman in anointing 
Jesus; provide hospitality, as did Zaccheus, Matthew, 
Simon, and Martha, though such hospitality will not 
be limited to those who can repay; provide festal 
occasions, as the wedding in Cana and the wedding sup- 
per of the king's son, and the supper of "a certain man," 
though to be troubled about many things as was Martha 
is not commendable; give fish, bread, and good gifts 
to one's children; and render unto God the things 
that are God's, as did the widow, the ministering 
women, and the good and righteous Joseph. The uses 
of money are thus many in glorifying God, relieving 
the estate of man, and increasing the pleasures of life. 
Jesus nowhere forbids the possession of money, even 
the accumulation of wealth, provided only that the 
eleven-talent man, who has profited by the natural law 
of cumulative results, still regards himself as simply 
his Lord's steward and owing what he owns. "Trade 
ye herewith till I come" (Luke 19: 13) doubtless 
primarily means, "Put to use all your God-given 
powers," it being part of the parable of the Pounds, 

29 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Praise of the 

Economic 

Virtues 



Some 
Abuses of 
Money 



though secondarily it may properly mean that it is the 
Christian duty of some men to make money, to finance 
the Lord's business on earth. So Jesus was fully ap- 
preciative of the right uses of money. 

Likewise the virtues associated with honest money- 
getting receive unstinted praise from Jesus. "Good 
and faithful" are the servants who use the banks to 
double their capital in talents and pounds. "Wicked 
and slothful" is the servant who hid his lord's money 
away in a napkin. Even the fragments are to be 
gathered up after a company of five thousand is fed, 
that nothing be lost. Being faithful in the unrighteous 
mammon is an indication of fitness to receive on trust 
the true riches. Being unfaithful in the little matter 
of money belonging to another indicates unfitness to 
receive one's own. Even promotion and demotion in 
service in the world to come are continuous with the 
qualities of goodness and faithfulness or wickedness 
and slothfulness displayed in the handling of the lord's 
money during his absence. Jesus could not have set 
higher approval upon the homely virtues of thrift, 
industry, honesty, and fidelity. This phase of his teach- 
ing must have been appreciated by a people like the 
Jews who taught every youth a trade. 

Though so highly appreciating both the uses of money 
and the virtues of money-getting, Jesus did not fail 
to recognize its grave abuses and its deadly perils. 
Among the abuses of money appear these: Keeping it 
to oneself, as did Dives, who would share with Lazarus 
only the crumbs that fell from his table, failing thereby 
to make a friend who would receive him in the heavenly 
habitation, as also did the Rich Fool who communed 
only with his own soul; giving only to those who can 
repay in kind; giving even to the Temple instead of to 

30 



JESUS AND WEALTH 

one's needy parents; parading one's gifts before men, 
sounding the trumpet as one gives, instead of not let- 
ting the left hand know what the right hand doeth; 
even punctilious tithing of mint, anise, and cummin, 
coupled with neglect of the weightier matters of the 
law; and failure to put it to use. 

The deadly perils of money Jesus recognized in some Perils of 
of his most striking teachings. "The deceitfulness of W«»^*^ 
riches" chokes the word as thorns the good seed by 
the wayside. "Take heed and beware of covetousness" 
(Luke 12: 15), says Jesus, uncovering the motive be- 
hind the request that he divide an inheritance. They 
that put their trust in riches can hardly enter the King- 
dom. Farms, merchandise, and oxen may stand in 
the way of attending the king's marriage supper. You 
cannot serve God and mammon, though it is possible 
to serve God and make mammon serve you. And, with 
Oriental hyperbole, it is easier for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the 
kingdom of heaven. Recall here that Abraham, a rich 
man, received Lazarus in bliss. Woe is pronounced 
upon the rich because they, like Dives, have received 
their consolation. The trouble with the Rich Young 
Ruler, who went away sorrowing from the source of 
the eternal life which also he would inherit, was that 
he did not own his great possessions, they owned 
him, and he was unable to renounce his slavery. Treas- 
ures are to be laid up in heaven, not on earth, for 
where the treasure is, there is the heart also. Money 
is to Jesus, because of its seductiveness, "the unright- 
eous mammon" and "the mammon of unrighteousness." 
Luke, the evangelist who especially discredits wealth, 
writes in the Magnificat: "And the rich he hath sent 
empty away" (Luke i: 53). 

31 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Summary 



Some Things 
Jesus Did 
not Do 



To summarize the results of our study, Jesus, being 
acquainted with men of wealth and the influence of 
wealth on men, recognized God as the ultimate source 
of wealth, which could be increased by human enter- 
prise; appreciated the great but subordinate value of 
wealth ; indicated its proper uses ; praised its associated 
virtues; pointed out its abuses; and warned against its 
perils to the souls of men. Wealth to Jesus was a 
thing of power, not to be held, hoarded, prized, or ex- 
pended luxuriously for self, but to be received as from 
above, increased, put to good use as a means to spirit- 
ual ends, as by a good and faithful steward who should 
render an account of his lord's money. 

Some things that Jesus did not do are : he never dis- 
cussed the modern topic of the economic theory of the 
state, though at least three occasions were suitable for 
so doing, namely, the question of the tribute to Caesar, 
paying the temple tax, and dividing the inheritance; 
he never commanded community of goods, though he 
and the disciples kept a common purse as a matter 
of convenience, but some disciples, like Joseph of 
Arimathea, did not share in it, and the later Jerusalem 
Church had all things in common for a time as a mat- 
ter of voluntary devotion — a custom not followed in 
the other churches, which in fact left the saints in 
Jerusalem dependent (Acts ii: 29, 30); he never de- 
nied the right of private ownership, but evidently took 
it for granted, using as illustrations the householder 
planting a vineyard and leasing it, and a certain noble- 
man going into a far country to receive a kingdom 
for himself; he never denied one's right to possessions, 
though enjoining their renunciation {i. e. willingness 
to release them for the Kingdom's sake) upon all, and 
in one case at least urging their voluntary surrender 

32 



JESUS AND WEALTH 

for sale and gifts to the poor; he never condemned 
wealth as such nor a rich man because of his wealth, 
but only because of his misuse of it; and he never 
divided men into the contrasting and antagonistic 
classes of rich and poor, but only into the wise and 
foolish, the whole and sick, the righteous and sinners. 
But it would also be a mistake to say that he forbade 
communism, collectivism, or any specific form of eco- 
nomic production and distribution. He was concerned 
in cultivating free spirits and in making the souls of 
men rich toward God, trusting these to find the eco- 
nomic system best expressive of universal brotherly 
love. 



33 



STUDY V 



JESUS AND POVERTY 



His Life and 
Poverty 

The Offering 
at the 
Presentation 



Modest 
Means in 
Nazareth 



A Simple 
Life With- 
out Money 
Beyond 
Need 



In what relations did the life of Jesus stand to the 
goods of this world? When in his infancy his parents 
presented him to the Lord in the Temple according to 
the law of Moses, their offering was not the lamb and 
turtledove, or pigeon, regularly prescribed for those 
who could afford it, but a pair of turtledoves, or two 
young pigeons, indicating that their means sufficed not 
for a lamb. 

Joseph's trade was that of a carpenter, which was 
given to Jesus in turn. Thus the living, independent, 
though doubtless simple, was made in the Nazareth 
home. Jesus was educated in letters in the village syna- 
gogue, and thereafter was self-taught. The family 
appeared at a wedding in the neighboring town of Cana, 
some four miles northerly from Nazareth, and later 
moved to Capernaum, some twenty miles away, sug- 
gesting some freedom of movement. We do not know 
whether Mary wove for Jesus his seamless robe. 

As the firstborn, he would receive by inheritance the 
largest share of Joseph's property, which, however, he 
doubtless left behind him on beginning his public work. 
From the cross he committed his mother to John, but 
no property to her. As the disciples had a common 
bag or box for their money, he probably carried no 
money on his person. He said, "Shew me a penny" 
(Luke 20: 24), not taking the tribute money or the 
temple-tax of the half-shekel from his pocket. The 

34 



JESUS AND POVERTY 

disciples drew from the common purse to purchase the 
necessities of life and to give alms to the poor. At 
the time of paying the temple tax of the half-shekel, 
or thirty-two cents, there was evidently not so much 
in the bag, and Peter was sent back to his old occupa- 
tion as fisherman for it. At the time of feeding the 
five thousand, two hundred penny-worth of bread, about 
thirty-four dollars, seemed an incredible amount to the 
disciples. 

The company was the recipient of gifts of money, 
not as mendicants or objects of charity, but as the hire 
for their spiritual labor and for distributing to the 
needy. It was clearly a matter of choice, not of neces- 
sity, that the Son of Man had not where to lay his 
head. Jesus was hungry at Jacob's well, but meat 
at the time was being purchased ; again he was hungry 
before the barren fig-tree, but there is no indication 
that means of satisfaction were unavailable. We have 
seen that Jesus had well-to-do friends who were only 
too glad to extend him their hospitality, of which, too, 
he availed himself. His disciple John was known to 
the high priest. Some one, possibly Zebedee, the father 
of two of the disciples, kept a boat awaiting his con- 
venience while preaching near the Sea of Galilee. A 
friend, or friends, in Jerusalem provided him with an 
ass on Palm Sunday, with a lodging with his disciples 
during the last week of his life, and with an upper 
room in which to keep the passover, for which, how- 
ever, the common purse purchased the supplies. He 
was buried in the tomb of a rich friend. Here was a 
life simple both in fact and from choice, not possessed 
of riches nor yet one of grinding poverty. 

What of poverty did Jesus see in the lives of others ? Scenes of 
His soul was moved at the sight of the scribes devour- Poverty 

35 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

ing widows' houses, even while for a pretence mak- 
ing long prayers. He saw true generosity in the poor 
widow casting all her living into the treasury. The 
blind beggars of Jericho received his healing sympathy. 
The blind, the lame, the deaf, the lepers, the paralytics, 
whom he healed were probably also poor in this world's 
goods, not being able under existent social conditions 
to earn their way. The woman with the issue of blood 
had vainly spent all that she had. So Jesus knew 
about the poor and their social and natural hardships, 
coupled as these often were with physical misfor- 
tunes. Afflicted Lazarus in the parable may have been 
a real character. 
Meaning of What did Jesus teach concerning poverty? It may 

"the Poor" ^^q said at the outset that when Jesus refers to "the 
poor" he uses the term primarily in a spiritual, and only 
secondarily in an economic sense, and that the term 
when used in the economic sense is not equivalent to 
"penurious," but includes all persons who have no more 
than they need. Jesus found the Jewish economic poor 
with hearts open toward God, in fact, as a class, "poor 
in spirit." "The poor" of the gospels thus stand in 
a double contrast, first, spiritually, with their formally 
religious and really oppressive leaders, and, second, 
economically, with the wealthy, who had grossly abused 
their privileges to deserve such criticisms as Jesus 
passed upon them. 
The Com- The first thing to note is that Jesus, himself not 

passion of wealthy, coming with a message of love and brother- 

the^oor hood for all, having been brought up among the poor, 

was always moved with compassion at the sight of the 
hungry multitude which was not sure of its next meal, 
always ministered to their needs both individually and 
collectively, always spoke with great tenderness of them 

36 



JESUS AND POVERTY 

and to them, even when rebuking them for following 
him for the loaves and fishes. 

To Jesus it was the divine seal of his ministry that The Gospel 
the poor had the Gospel preached to them, not that the '^"^ *^® ^°°^ 
good tidings were for any social class exclusively. He 
began his ministry in Nazareth with the text from 
Isaiah : "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he 
anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor : he hath 
sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and re- 
covering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them 
that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the 
Lord" (Luke 4: 18, 19). The burden of his sermon 
on this text was : "To-day hath this scripture been ful- 
filled in your ears" (Luke 4: 21). The Gospel was 
not too good for the poor and the poor were not too 
bad for the Gospel. 

When John the Forerunner was in prison and heard The 
the works of Jesus, realizing that Jesus was not in fact f^t^^^® 
thoroughly cleansing his threshing-floor, fan in hand, 
gathering the wheat, and burning up the chaff, that he 
was in fact not at all a figure of violence but of gentle- 
ness, John's faith in Jesus as the prophesied Messiah 
wavered. He called two of his disciples to him, for 
he was not in close confinement in the prison of 
Machaerus, and sent them to Jesus with the question: 
"Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?" 
(Luke 7: 19). These messengers found Jesus in the 
act of curing many of diseases, plagues, evil spirits, 
and blindness. He answered their question not cate- 
gorically but characteristically, guiding thereby John's 
thinking to his own conclusion, and again associating 
the Gospel with the poor: "Go and tell John what 
things ye have seen and heard; the blind receive their 
sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the 

37 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Special In- 
vitation to 
the Poor 



Blessings on 
the Poor 



deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good 
tidings preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever 
shall find no occasion of stumbling in me" (Luke 7: 
'Z2, 23). The incident profoundly affected Jesus, as 
his words to the multitudes following the departure of 
John's messengers show. He was continuing to exem- 
plify his Nazareth sermon, leading to his rejection there. 
He was moved to think John too might stumble; "he 
that is but little in the kingdom of God is greater 
than he" (Luke 7: 28). Unfortunately we are not told 
John's conclusion, if any, before his beheading. 

Since the Gospel was for the poor and sinners, not 
for those who received their consolation in wealth and 
for the self-righteous, it is not surprising that specially 
urgent invitations are sent out to the poor, who had 
not regarded themselves as worthy to come to the 
gospel feast. "Go ye therefore unto the partings of 
the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the 
marriage feast" (Matt. 22: 9). The invitation extended 
by Jesus himself is: "Come unto me all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 
11: 2^). These are the poor, not merely of the op- 
pressed body but of the oppressed spirit, weighted with 
Pharisaic legalism. 

As Jesus pronounced woe on the rich and the full 
who are satisfied, so he pronounced blessing on the 
poor and the hungry who are not satisfied, either in 
body or in spirit. Luke, the beloved physician, whose 
labors brought him into intimate contact with the needs 
of the poor, stresses the physical poverty and hunger; 
Matthew, the man of affairs, on whom the Beatitudes 
made an even profounder impression, stresses the 
spiritual poverty and hunger. Says Luke : "Blessed are 
ye poor," "Blessed are ye that hunger now," "Blessed 

38 



JESUS AND POVERTY 

are ye that weep now" (Luke 6: 20, 21). Says Mat- 
thew: ''Blessed are the poor in spirit," "Blessed are 
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness," 
"Blessed are they that mourn" (Matt. 5: 3, 4, 6). 
Luke is more specific, Matthew more general. The two 
sides go together, as body and mind. There is no praise 
of poverty for its own sake, as there is no condemnation 
of riches as such. These blessings on the poor stand 
in contrast with the characteristic attitude of the chief 
priests and Pharisees: "This multitude that knoweth 
not the law are accursed" (John 7: 49). 

Why did Jesus pronounce blessings on the poor? Reasons 

Because theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Because it 'orBiessmg 

the Poor 
was easier for them not to lay up treasures on earth 

and just as easy at least for them to lay up treasures 
in heaven. Because, having little, they were not tempted 
to give anxious thought to eating, drinking, and wearing 
apparel, but were able sincerely to pray day by day for 
sufficient bread. Because they were not tempted to 
put their trust in riches, and could not suffer from the 
deceitfulness of that which they did not possess. Hav- 
ing no mammon to serve, they find it easier to serve 
God. Escaping the perils of wealth, they do not have 
to pass through the needle's eye, which the rich young 
ruler was unable to do. But their estate has its own 
temptations, not indeed peculiar to it, in envy and covet- 
ousness. When one out of the multitude asked him: 
"Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with 
me" (Luke 12: 13), he not only declined, not having 
been appointed to that work, but said unto them : "Take 
heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness ; for 
even in a man's abundance his life is not from the 
things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15, margin). 

Repeatedly Jesus commands that alms be given to Giving Alms 
39 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

the poor. These poor were usually afflicted in some 
way and in those days unable to earn a living, though 
we cannot be sure that this was always the case. "Give 
to him that asketh thee" is the general direction for 
those simple days which knew not the work of asso- 
ciated charities — ^"the condensed milk of human kind- 
ness," as they have been called — and the gift of one- 
self, one's services, is still necessary. "Lend, never 
despairing," he says (Luke 6:35). "From him that 
would borrow of thee turn not thou away" (Matt. 
5:42). "Distribute unto the poor" (Luke 18:22) was 
the personal instruction given to the rich young man, 
following upon his selling all that he had. A part of the 
conversation between Jesus and this rich young ruler as 
it has survived in a fragment of "The Gospel of the 
Hebrews" is :^ 

"And the Lord said unto him: How canst thou say 
I have kept the law and the prophets, as it is written 
in the law. Love thy neighbor as thyself? Behold, 
many of thy brethren, sons of Abraham, lie in dirty 
rags and die of hunger, and thy house is full of many 
goods, and nothing comes out of it to them." 
The _ Jesus and the disciples were themselves as a com- 

pany accustomed to give something to the poor from 
their common fund. At least Judas, the pilfering treas- 
urer of the company, complained at the anointing of 
Jesus by Mary that the ointment was not sold for a 
sum equivalent to about fifty dollars and given to the 
poor. Likewise, when Jesus told Judas to do quickly 
what he had planned to do, some thought he should give 
something to the poor. The company of the disciples 
thus set the example of the giving, as well as the out- 
giving, life. There is no record of Jesus individually 
1 Quoted from Harnack, "What is Christianity?" p. 107, N. Y., 1902. 
40 



Example 
of Alms 



JESUS AND POVERTY 

having given alms. His individual treatment of afflicted 
persons, restoring their lost powers, made the unfor- 
tunate recipient of alms no longer dependent. Such 
relief was not the prolongation of misery, but its 
abrogation. 

Special rewards attend giving. "Give, and it shall Reward 
be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, 'o^^ims 
shaken together, running over, shall they give into 
your bosom'* (Luke 6: 38). Here is a superabundant 
return for giving. ''Freely ye have received, freely 
give," he says (Matt. 10: 8). That Jesus stressed such 
ministration is further indicated by the fact that his 
only scriptural saying not in the gospels, preserved 
by Paul, touches this point: *Tt is more blessed to give 
than to receive" (Acts 20: 35). This saying suggests 
some sense of peril in receiving, as the warnings 
against ostentatious giving suggest its peril, too. 

Such giving is plainly from a brother to a brother HospitaUty 
in need, and not at all from a superior to an inferior. *° *^® ^°^^ 
Not merely alms are to be given but hospitality is to 
be extended to the poor and unfortunate. "But when 
thou makest a feast, bid the poor, the maimed, the lame, 
and the blind" (Luke 14: 13), the recompense for which 
comes not from those served but in the resurrection of 
the just, at which time the sheep and the goats are 
separated by the exclusively practical test of ministry 
and hospitality to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, im- 
prisoned, and strangers. The wealth of imagery 
lavished on the scene of the last judgment indicates 
that such giving of self in service to the poor, needy, 
and unfortunate is not an incident of the Gospel, but 
is of its essence. 

Jesus unquestionably felt drawn to the lower classes, No Condoning 
who heard him gladly, in tender sympathy and loving 

41 



Economic Vices 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Neither 
Poverty 
nor Wealth 
Avails 



The Purse 
of the First 
Evangelists 



deeds. Yet in his teaching there is not one word of 
encouragement to idleness, shiftlessness, mendicancy, 
or pauperism. "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" 
asks the householder of laborers in the market-place 
(Matt. 20: 6). The repeatedly commended "good and 
faithful servants" possess the homely economic virtues. 
The "slothful" servant is also "wicked." The disciples 
of Jesus were mainly workingmen. 

Those who see in the Gospel a condemnation of all 
wealth as such and the glorification of poverty as such 
curiously trip over words and miss the spirit of the 
whole as revealed in the things Jesus did. Though "ye 
have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will 
ye can do them good" (Mark 14: 7), poverty as a 
state is not something to be acquiesced in or to glory 
in, but it requires relief through compassion, alms, and 
personal service. Nothing should come between us and 
the Kingdom, not even wealth and its luxuries; noth- 
ing can come between us and the Kingdom, not even 
poverty and its deprivations. Wealth should not, 
poverty need not, hinder our entrance into the King- 
dom. Wealth is no curse, nor poverty; poverty is no 
blessing, nor wealth. The advantage, however, is with 
poverty, as its perils to the soul are fewer and its con- 
ditions favorable to the reception of the good news of 
the Father's providential care and of human love and 
brotherhood. 

The seventy evangelists sent forth by Jesus were in- 
structed: "Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in 
your girdles" (Matt. 10: 9). "Carry no purse," says 
Luke. They were to throw themselves upon the hos- 
pitality of the neighboring villages, as spiritual laborers 
worthy of their hire and living by the Gospel they pro- 
claimed. They could count on being favorably re- 

42 



JESUS AND POVERTY 

ceived. In contrast, in the farewell conversation, he 
said : "When I sent you forth without purse, and wallet, 
and shoes lacked ye anything? And they said. Noth- 
ing. And he said unto them, But now, he that hath 
a purse, let him take it and likewise a wallet" (Luke 
22: 35, 36). In this he suggested the times of persecu- 
tion ahead, following his being reckoned with the 
transgressors, when they could no longer count on a 
hospitable hearing. That is, the Christian evangelists 
carry no purse, or purse, according to the requirements 
of the situation. Thus there was no general rule about 
money for the primitive evangelists, except that they 
would not have money beyond their need. Likewise 
Christians, giving and lending freely, not owners but 
stewards and administrators of money, naturally do 
not possess money beyond their reasonable needs. For 
Judas, there was more money in betraying than in 
following his Master. 

In conclusion, concerning poverty, Jesus teaches that Summary 
the Gospel is for the poor, too, who as sinners feel 
their need of it; the poor are especially urged to at- 
tend the gospel feast; blessings are pronounced on the 
poor, because of the easy accessibility of the Gospel 
to them; alms and friendly and unselfish hospitality 
are to be given to the poor and unfortunate; the poor, 
however, are not encouraged to consent to their poverty, 
put a premium upon it, and make a luxury of it ; poverty 
is as such neither a blessing nor a curse; and money 
for ministers and other followers of Christ will not be 
possessed beyond need. Evidently the teaching of Jesus 
contains no social program for the suppression of 
poverty and distress; no remedial legislation is specifi- 
cally proposed; it contains only the living germ of all 
social reform — love, helpfulness, and brotherhood. 

43 



STUDY VI 



JESUS AND LABOR 



The An- 
noimcement 
of the Nativ- 
ity to the 
Shepherds 



The Carpen- 
ter's Family 
in Nazareth 



The Work 
of Mary 



How was the life of Jesus related to labor? 

With appropriate poetic imagination, Luke, sensing 
the lowliness of the life of Jesus, presents us the pic- 
ture of an angel of the Lord announcing the birth of 
Jesus to shepherds in the field, keeping watch by night 
over their flock. The good tidings of great joy were 
for all the people. The lowly sign was a babe wrapped 
in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. To the 
same company of shepherds about their task, perhaps 
that of providing sacrificial animals for the temple serv- 
ice, the multitude of the heavenly host sang of peace on 
earth among men of good will. That peace was un- 
limited, and might well include freedom from industrial 
as well as political warfare. 

It was a laborer's family into which Jesus was born. 
Joseph was the carpenter of the village of Nazareth. 
Joseph must have been the kind of man, giving good 
gifts to his children, to make it easy for Jesus to think 
of God as Father. To his neighbors he was known as 
a righteous, considerate, and unpretentious man. 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, highly favored of God, 
pious, earnest, and reflective, was doubtless an indus- 
trious and otherwise suitable helpmeet for Joseph. 
Judging by the later teachings of Jesus, some of the 
things he may have seen Mary doing are: sweeping 
diligently for a lost coin, putting leaven in three meas- 
ures of meal, grinding grain with the small mill of two 

44 



JESUS AND LABOR 

stones with the assistance of another woman, bringing 
forth things both new and old, selecting old cloth to 
cover holes in old garments, lighting the candle and 
putting it on the stand, and perhaps even rejoicing that 
a man-child was born into the world. It was an in- 
dustrious, perhaps frugal, home. 

Reared in a laborer's home, Jesus himself became a jesusas 
laborer, adopting Joseph's trade of carpenter, and be- Carpenter 
coming himself in time the well-known village car- 
penter. And a carpenter he remained for some eigh- 
teen years after saying that he must be about his 
Father's business, thereby suggesting that honest toil, 
coupled with self-improvement, is a part of the Father's 
business. 

At about the age of thirty Jesus ceased to be a manual The PubUc 

worker and became a spiritual worker, for the short Work of 

Jesus 
remaining fragment of his life, something less than 

three years. He did not cease to labor, he only changed 
the field of his labor. Though no longer practicing 
carpentry, he did not drop the carpenter's habit of 
mind, but continued to speak of corner-stones, founda- 
tions on rock and sand, beams and motes, ploughs and 
yokes, building towers, counting the cost, how people 
spent the time building in the days of Noah before the 
flood, and how he would build his Church upon the 
rock of such faith as Peter's. The Gospel is a car- 
penter's call. 

Something of the economic sense developed during The 
the many years of manual labor continued during the Economic 
few years of spiritual labor. Twice, after the exhibition j^g^^ 
of the greatest profusion of simple food in feeding mul- 
titudes of four and five thousand men, besides women 
and children, he commanded : "Gather up the fragments 
that remain, that nothing be lost" (John 6: 12), thus 

45 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



His Practical 
Turn of Mind 



Jesus 
Learned of 
Labor from 
Observation 



Illustrations 
from Agri- 
culture 



saving from waste at one time twelve and at another 
time seven baskets full. To what useful purpose these 
were put we do not know. 

It may not be going too far to say that in his spirit- 
ual labor Jesus exhibited a quality of reality, directness, 
freshness, with aphoristic and epigrammatic statement, 
commonly found in workers with things rather than in 
workers with words. In his case there is wealth of 
meaning in few words instead of dearth of meaning in 
many words. A bookish man who had not shaped 
things with his muscles would surely have been less 
original and less radical than Jesus. The fact that 
Jesus for so long had done things in wood no doubt 
assisted him in doing things in religion. 

But, of course, Jesus learned much about labor and 
its many fields from observation of the life about him, 
in addition to that knowledge accumulated by personal 
experience. It has been estimated that of the nearly 
three years in the public labor of Jesus, only fifteen 
different months are referred to by the gospel writers, 
and of these fifteen months, only thirty-five different 
days altogether are indicated. Evidently only a small 
fragment of the deeds and words of Jesus have come 
down to us. Yet, if we look into the content of this 
fragment of his teaching for evidence of his knowledge 
of the facts of labor, we shall probably be surprised at 
the amount of it. 

Of all the current occupations of his time, he makes 
most frequent reference to agriculture, after which 
follow in order commerce, industry, and brain-work. 
Perhaps this order roughly reflects the relative size of 
these occupations in his day. Among his illustrations 
drawn from agriculture, or closely related pursuits, are 
the sower; the vineyard, including the hedge and the 

46 



JESUS AND LABOR 

winepress; the field containing a hid treasure; two 
men in the field; a man going to his farm; laborers 
waiting to be employed ; the porter watching ; the wheat 
and the tares; old and new wine-skins; the dying 
grain of wheat; the vine and its branches; the two 
sons in the vineyard; planting in the days of Noah; 
the servant ploughing or keeping sheep; the good 
shepherd; the lost sheep; the sheepfold; the hireling; 
the fertilizing dung-hill; the ox or ass in the well; the 
barren fig-tree; the cumbering fig-tree; the budding 
fig-tree; the harvest plenteous; the fields white; the 
laborers few; reaping and receiving wages; the tree 
and its corresponding fruit; the blade, the ear, and 
the corn; the mustard seed, repeatedly used; drinking 
old wine; the hand to the plough; the easy yoke; the 
light burden ; the fertile land of the rich fool ; the fruit 
of the vine; the hen and her brood; the crowing cock; 
the drag-net ; casting the net on the other side ; putting 
out into the deep; and fishers of men. In this list, as 
well as illustrations, we find some incidents in his 
life; also, with the agricultural are associated the pur- 
suits of the shepherd and the fisherman. 

Turning to the field of commerce, we note Jesus talk- niustrations 
ing about profit: the pearl merchant; the purchase of fromCom- 
a field; one going to his merchandise; tax-gatherers; 
servants trading with talents and pounds; the selling 
of two and five sparrows; stewards of various kinds, 
faithful, unfaithful, and unjust; two types of debtors; 
hiring the unemployed ; and selling sheep. 

Among industrial occupations, we note his references illustrations 
to tailoring, grinding, and building. from industry 

Several other occupations are those of the scribe, still other 
lawyer, physician, soldier, judge, and of the rulers of Occupations 
the Gentiles. 

47 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Labor 
Symbolizes 
the Kingdom 
of Heaven 



Praise of the 

Economic 

Virtues 



The Reward 
of Labor 



Our lists may be incomplete, yet they include prob- 
ably all the occupations of his day, whether of hand- 
work or brain-work. Here is a body of teaching 
epitomizing the vocational side of life. We must con- 
clude that Jesus was familiar with the types of labor 
and laborers of his day. We turn to his teaching about 
labor with real and earnest expectation. 

The first obvious and outstanding thing to notice is 
that labor to Jesus symbolizes the heavenly Kingdom. 
He does not condemn any form of labor; he does not 
condemn the relationship of master and servant, but 
rather stresses it; he does not protest against either 
riches or poverty; he just presupposes the complex 
world of labor; but he sees spiritual meaning in it 
all ; it suggests to him the ways of God with man. 

Further, fidelity, industry, thrift, and good judgment 
— in fact all the virtues pertaining to labor — are dis- 
tinctly recognized, encouraged, and praised. No busi- 
ness virtue is discouraged. On the other hand, unfaith- 
fulness, sloth, disobedience to orders, and poor judg- 
ment — in fact all the vices attendant on the non-use 
or abuse of labor — he censures without qualification. 
No business vice goes uncondemned. Ill-gotten gain, 
idleness, and avarice are rebuked. One looks in vain 
into the teachings of Jesus for any depreciation of busi- 
ness success or any appreciation of business failure. 
To succeed in whatever one undertakes is so far forth 
good, and to fail brings discredit upon oneself. Jesus 
does not excuse personal failure through appeal to 
bad environment. 

Further, labor should have its due reward. The 
laborer is worthy of his food and of his hire. This is 
true in both the physical and spiritual realms. He 
laid it down as a principle in sending out the twelve 

48 



JESUS AND LABOR 

and the seventy. Not merely the wages due, but 
promotion in the field of attainment belong by right 
to labor. 'Thou hast been faithful over a few things, 
I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matt. 25: 
21) is the principle upon which the master acts with 
his servants. And the promotion is proportionate to 
the attainment. "To him that hath shall be given." 
Progress in attainment is expected, and the lack of it 
is penalized: "From him that hath not shall be taken 
away even that which he hath" (Matt. 25: 29). 

Inequality in endowment, leading to inequality in inequaUty 
attainment, and so to inequality of reward, is plainly 
taught in the parable of the Talents. The servants 
start with unequal amounts, they gain unequal amounts, 
though each doubles his capital, and they are promoted 
according to their proven ability. In the case of the 
parable of the Pounds, there is equal distribution of 
property at the outset — each of ten servants receives 
one pound. Inequality in ability shows itself in trad- 
ing with equal amounts — one servant gains ten pounds, 
another five pounds. Promotion to rulership over cities 
is proportionate to attainment, not to original capital. 
To Jesus there is no dead level in the capacity of 
workers, in the accomplishment of workers, or in the 
promotion of workers, but each worker is treated as 
an individual. To each work is given to do accord- 
ing to his ability, from each returns are expected ac- 
cording to his ability, and to each promotion is given 
according to his accomplishment. The laborer is not 
rewarded according to his needs. Jesus stated these 
principles of inequality in the field of labor as matters 
of truth, right, and life, not as matter of theoretical 
economics, but with difficulty can any system of sound 
economics reject them. 

49 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

Equality This principle of economic justice based on payment 

according to work done is tempered by the principle 
of voluntary generosity, as it appears in the parable 
of the Laborers hired to work in the vineyard. It was 
a twelve hour day, from six to six. In the morning 
laborers were hired by a householder for seventeen 
cents each. At nine, twelve, three, and even five 
o'clock, other laborers found unemployed in the market- 
place were sent into the vineyard, the wage being un- 
specified. "Whatsoever is right I will give thee." The 
steward paid each laborer seventeen cents. Those 
hired first began to murmur. But the householder said 
to one of them: "Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst 
thou not agree with me for seventeen cents? Take 
up that which is thine, and go thy way; it is my will 
to give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful 
for me to do what I will with mine own? or is thine 
eye evil because I am good?" (Matt. 20: 13-15). The 
point here seems to be that the first received in justice 
that for which they had bargained. The others received 
the same as a matter of voluntary goodness on the 
part of the employer, because (i) through no fault of 
their own they were unemployed in the market-place, 
and (2) they worked in faith that they would receive 
what was right. The comment of Jesus on the parable 
is, "So the last shall be first and the first last" (Matt. 
20: 16). The heavenly meaning in this earthly story 
seems to be that in the Kingdom of God those who 
work for specified wages receive them, but those who 
for lack of opportunity come late into the Kingdom and 
work for unspecified wages receive equally. The oc- 
casion for the teaching was the question of Peter: 
"What then shall we have?" (Matt. 19: 2y). Jesus 
tells him about judging the twelve tribes of Israel, but 

50 



JESUS AND LABOR 

warns him in advance not to murmur if late-comers 
who work faithfully, not knowing what they shall re- 
ceive, are given the same reward. In the field of the 
employment of labor this principle of voluntary gen- 
erosity provides not for collective bargaining but for 
collective paying. In this parable the solution of the 
labor problem is the good employer. He keeps his 
word, he seeks out the unemployed, he provides them 
with work, he rewards them generously. No doubt 
such a vineyard would not lack for laborers. 

The employer's being good involves no divorce of Religion and 
rehgion and business. This, too, is one of the views ^"^"^^ss 
of Jesus regarding spirituality and work. The fact 
that the world of employment is so largely drawn upon 
for his teachings concerning the Kingdom indicates 
the unity of life to him. If labor can be used to in- 
terpret the Kingdom, then there is no impossibility of 
the Kingdom's being used to interpret labor. A divorce 
between the two does violence to each. The wither- 
ing scorn of Jesus is provoked by the hypocritical 
scribes "who devour widows' houses, even while for a 
pretence they make long prayers; these shall receive 
greater condemnation" (Mark 12: 40 margin). He 
condemns to the tormentors the merciless, avaricious 
servant who had received forgiveness for a debt of 
ten million dollars from his king, but would not in 
turn forgive a fellow-servant his debt of seventeen dol- 
dars. Similarly he rejects the inconsistency of calling 
him "Lord" and not doing the things that he says. It 
is the single gold standard of sincerity that Jesus 
advocates in the worlds of religion and business. It 
was the doing of the truth whereby one came to the 
light. Happiness consists, according to Jesus, not in 
knowing these things but in doing them. 

51 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



The Continuity 
of Labor 



A Method 
of Settling 
Difficulties 



Personality 
Above Profit 



The principle of the continuity of labor Jesus also 
recognized and specifically stated. He was sexiding 
out his disciples to reap where they had not sown, to 
gather where they had not strewn. "Other men labored, 
and ye are entered into their labors" (John 4: 38). 
The lord of the servants he likened to an austere man 
gathering where he had not scattered. Not only do 
men enter into each other's labors but each man in his 
future promotion enters into his own past labors. He 
has gained five pounds, he rules five cities. There is 
social, there is also individual, continuity in labor. 

Jesus gives us a method of settling difficulties be- 
tween individuals that would apply also to labor dis- 
putes. It involves the introduction of personal dealings 
in industry. First, "show him his fault between thee 
and him alone." Failing this, "take with thee one 
or two more." Failing this, "tell it unto the congre- 
gation." Failing this, "let him be unto thee as the 
Gentile and the publican." Thus the four steps of pro- 
cedure are (i) personal conference, (2) social con- 
ference, (3) organization conference, and (4) sever- 
ing relations. This method is equally applicable be- 
tween a capitalist and offending labor, and an offending 
capitalist and labor. It is competent for whichever 
side is sinned against to take the initiative. A strike 
in the extreme case might sever relations, but there 
would be no violence. 

Jesus clearly teaches that personality is above profit. 
"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8: 36, 37). "A man's 
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which 
he possesseth" (Luke 12: 15). A man is of more value 
than the grass, the sparrow, the sheep. The trouble 

52 



JESUS AND LABOR 

with Dives was not that he made money but that he 
unmade himself. The trouble with the money-changers 
was not that they were changing and making money, 
but that they substituted the house of merchandise 
for the house of prayer. The trouble with Martha 
about her household cares was that in making a good 
dinner she spoiled herself. The trouble with the hus- 
bandmen was that, in order to gain the vineyard as an 
inheritance, they slew the servants and the son of the 
owner, sacrificing their own fellows in the greed for 
gain. We are not to labor for the meat that perisheth. 
We are to make for ourselves purses that wax not old. 
We are to lay up treasure in heaven. We are to use 
the fruits of labor to make us friends who will receive 
us in the eternal habitation. Labor is good; its ob- 
jective is not money but men, not cash but character. 
The question is not, Will it pay in profits? but, Will it 
pay in persons? 

Jesus felt the great urgency of his spiritual work. The Urgency 
He must work the works of Him that sent him while of Work 
it was day before the night came when no man could 
work. He had a baptism to be baptized with, and was 
straitened until it was accomplished. He must preach 
also in the next towns, for thereunto also was he sent. 
He must need pass through Samaria, though the Jews 
commonly avoided that route. He came forth to bear 
witness unto the truth. He had meat to eat that the 
disciples knew not of. His work was his life, it alone 
mattered. Almost his last words from the cross ex- 
pressed a sense of relief: "It is finished" (John 19: 
30). His was a life to condemn idleness, slackness, 
and purposelessness. He was a worker. He did good 
even on the Sabbath day. He justified so doing ulti- 
mately by referring to the nature of his Father: "My 

S3 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

Father worketh hitherto and I work." Thus work 
he viewed as characteristic of the Divine Being. He 
could not have placed any higher esteem upon work. 
Labor and Rest Despite the sense of urgency in his work, Jesus was 
not driven by it. He took time for refreshment of body 
and spirit. Schiller has said the life of man swings 
between labor and indulgence. The life of Jesus swings 
between labor and retreat. Just before or just after 
some trying experience, Jesus would retreat from the 
world of work to a desert place or the mountain for 
rest, meditation, and prayer. Thus did he at the out- 
set of his ministry, following his baptism, for forty 
days in the wilderness while rejecting false Messianic 
methods. Thus did he each Sabbath day in the syna- 
gogue. In the morning after a hard Sabbath day of 
teaching and healing in Capernaum, "a great while 
before day, he rose up and went out, and departed 
into a desert place, and there prayed" (Mark i: 35). 
Once seeing the multitudes following him, "he went 
out into the mountain to pray; and he continued all 
night in prayer to God" (Luke 6: 12), on the morning 
following which he chose the twelve apostles. After 
feeding the five thousand, when Jesus saw they were 
about to come and take him by force to make him 
king, he sent his disciples before him to the other side 
of the lake, dispersed the multitude, and "he went up 
into the mountain apart to pray: and when even was 
come, he was there alone" (Matt. 14: 23). Before 
asking his disciples the critical question: "But who 
say ye that I am?" (Luke 9: 20) he was praying apart 
on the way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. When 
he was transfigured, he was praying with Peter, James, 
and John in a high mountain apart by themselves. 
When the twelve apostles returned from their mission, 

54 



JESUS AND LABOR 

gathered about him, and told him what they had done 
and taught, he said: "Come ye yourselves apart into a 
desert place, and rest awhile" (Mark 6: 31). Only 
by alternating expenditure with recovery could he go 
from strength to strength. He labored not to exhaustion 
of body or unsteadiness of soul. 

Such are the main teachings of Jesus about labor. Summary 
Knowing about work with hand and brain both from 
experience and observation, he made of it parables of 
the Kingdom; praised success in it; censured personal 
weaknesses in it; said it should be suitably rewarded; 
recognized inequalities in capacities, attainments, and 
rewards ; recognized equality of reward for unequal at- 
tainment as a matter of voluntary generosity; scorned 
the divorce of business and religion; pointed out the 
principle of continuity in labor; gave a method of set- 
tling difficulties ; estimated personality above profit ; felt 
the divine urgency of work; and took periods of rest 
from and preparation for work in both body and soul. 

There are many things about the modern labor ques- Jesus as Social 
tion of which he did not speak, such as the conflict of 
capital and labor, the economic interpretation of history, 
minimum wage scales, the eight-hour day, compulsory 
arbitration, collective bargaining, profit-sharing, co- 
operation, class consciousness, publicity of accounts, 
woman and child labor, sweat-shops, strikes, lock-outs, 
government ownership of public utilities, and the like. 
Many of these questions did not exist at all in his day. 
So Jesus is no social revolutionist, no economic agita- 
tor, no advocate of a panacea, like the single tax, but 
just a brother among workers, treating workers as fel- 
low human beings, seeing the divinity of labor, doing 
as he would be done by, and practicing love to all men. 
Jesus reforms society by paying no attention to social 

55 



Reformer 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Principle of 
John D. Rocke- 
f eUer, Jr. 



A Working- 
man's WiU 



reform. He reforms the individual, and reformed in- 
dividuals take care of the social reforms. He does 
not improve men from the outside by improving human 
conditions, but he improves human conditions from the 
inside by improving men. The wisdom of this method 
of procedure commends itself to second thought. Right 
social conditions depend on good men more than good 
men depend on right social conditions. Jesus has no 
class consciousness, consequently no class hatred. His 
consciousness includes the individual and the universal, 
and excludes no social group. When individuals are 
Christians, social problems vanish of themselves. 

This solution of labor problems seems so simple 
and so ideal that, lest it may seem visionary, a few 
quotations will be appended in order to enforce its 
practicability. 

In a privately printed pamphlet by John D. Rocke- 
feller, Jr., on "The Personal Relation in Industry," 
he says: "If I were to sum up in a few words what I 
have been endeavoring to say to you in regard to the 
personal relation in industry, I should say, apply the 
Golden Rule." 

Within a few years the news of the day from London 
contained this item: 

"In these days of conflict between labor and capital, 
a particularly striking story is told by A. Bruce-Joy, 
the sculptor, whose colossal statue of the late W. H. 
Hornby has just been unveiled at Blackburn. 

Among the workmen in the Hornby factory at Black- 
burn was one who became a foreman and saved from 
his wages a large amount of money. This man, John 
Margerison, and his father before him each worked 
in the mill for fifty years. At his death about three 
years ago it was found that he had left by will more 

56 



aire's Creed 



JESUS AND LABOR 

than £3,000 ($15,000) for erecting a statue in Black- 
burn to the memory of his master and benefactor." 

One of the rich men of America, William B. Dickson, A Mfliion- 
of the Midvale Steel Company, recently printed his 
"Twentieth Century Creed" as follows: 

"First — Every human being has an inherent, in- 
alienable right to life, liberty, and a reasonable op- 
portunity for the attainment of happiness. These are 
human rights as distinguished from property rights, 
and are limited only by similar rights of all other 
persons. 

Second — These rights can be curtailed only as a re- 
sult of the act of the individual himself. 

Third — Human life being dependent on close and 
continuous contact with natural resources, the exercise 
of human rights necessarily implies free access to these 
resources. 

Fourth — There are no inherent, exclusive property 
rights in the natural resources, such as land, water, 
air, minerals, oil, gas, natural forests, etc., all of which 
exist not as the result of man's labor or thought, but 
as a gift direct from the hand of the Creator of the 
Universe. 

Fifth — As a corollary to the foregoing, exclusive in- 
dividual property rights are limited to the products of 
man's labor or thought. 

Sixth — Where human rights and property rights con- 
flict, the former must always prevail." 

This creed caused one of the metropolitan dailies to 
comment: "The perfected millionaire, hammered into 
shape by sledges of denunciation, seems upon us." 

The course of social evolution is bringing it about 
that "the kingdom of the world is become the king- 
dom of our Lord, and of his Christ" (Rev. ii: 15). 

57 



Family 



STUDY VII 
JESUS AND MARRIAGE 

The family is the basal institution of society as at 
present organized. There are insidious attacks being 
made upon it by some social reconstructionists. We 
need the aid of the moral and social insight of Jesus 
on this question. 
Jesus and Jesus himself was reared in a home among his kins- 

the Family fQjj^ ^j^^ acquaintance, of which he later became the 
His Own head. This home he moved from Nazareth to Caper- 

naum near the beginning of his ministry, his mother 
and "brethren" going, the sisters, to whom tradition 
has assigned the names of Salome and Mary, apparently 
remaining behind (Mark 6:3), perhaps being married. 
In order more effectively to carry on his work for the 
Kingdom, he himself then left the Capernaum home, 
and had not where to lay his head, though the home 
of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus was open to him in 
Bethany. His brothers, James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, 
did not accept his claims during his lifetime, challenged 
him to show himself to the world at the feast, suggest- 
ing that, though skeptical, they would be convinced by 
a sign. His mother recognized his power, as shown 
by her presumptuous suggestion that he use it at the 
wedding and begin by this method to come into his own ; 
he made the water wine, not, however, as a part of 
the work of his "hour," the ruler of the feast not 
knowing whence the wine came, but as a gracious act 
of a guest relieving the embarrassment of his host. 
Both Mary and his brothers thought him beside him- 

58 



JESUS AND MARRIAGE 

self at one time and came to take him. Mary, though 
apparently wavering in her allegiance for a while 
(Mark 3: 21, 31), stood at the cross and received his 
provision for her, James beheld the risen Christ, and 
both Mary and his brethren form part of the company 
praying in the upper chamber after the Ascension. 
So he knew from experience the fire he had kindled 
on the earth, the sword he had sent, the variance be- 
tween members of the same family he had caused, and 
the necessity of "hating" family ties at times for the 
sake of the Kingdom of God. 

He himself never married, making himself a volun- views of 
tary, not physical, eunuch for the Kingdom's sake ; had Marriage 
so far as we know only one married disciple; would 
not allow one follower first to bury his father, and 
another first to say farewell to those of his house; 
held that whosoever loved father or mother more than 
himself was not worthy to be his disciple ; said that no 
man should be called father on the earth; subordinated 
his own family ties to spiritual relationships; said he 
had come to set those of whatsoever family relationship 
at variance with each other; that one must be ready to 
leave behind all family ties, even those of the wife, 
for his sake and the Gospel's; that having married 
a wife was used as an excuse for not attending the 
king's supper; and that it was expedient for those to 
whom it was given not to marry. Yet he nowhere for- 
bids marriage. 

On the contrary, he attended a wedding with his Takes Marriage 
disciples, having been invited, rendered a gracious serv- '°' Granted 
ice to the bridegroom, likened himself to a bridegroom, 
healed Peter's wife's mother, likened the Kingdom of 
heaven to a wedding supper prepared by a king for 
his son, and to wise and foolish virgins awaiting the 

59 



Marriage 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

procession of the bridegroom, likened the coming of 
the Son of Man to that of the bridegroom at midnight, 
and said that in the days of the Son of Man as in those 
of Noah, though great and sudden changes were at 
hand, the common human occupations of eating, drink- 
ing, marrying, and giving in marriage, would be going 
on. So Jesus takes marriage for granted. But more, 
he reforms marriage. 
Reforms The Jews of Jesus' day were sometimes polygamous, 

Herod the Great having had ten wives; they divorced 
their wives for trivial reasons, the Rabbi Hillel allow- 
ing divorce "if she cook her husband's food badly by 
salting or roasting it too much," and Rabbi Akibah 
"if he sees a woman fairer than she," though Rabbi 
Shammai allowed it only for unchastity; and did not 
in turn allow wives to divorce their husbands. It was 
a mooted point in the interpretation of the law. The 
Pharisees brought it to Jesus. He taught, reaffirming 
Genesis, that God made male and female, that a man 
should leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, 
that the two, not several, should become one flesh, 
that what God had joined together man should not 
put asunder, that divorce is not divinely ordained but 
permitted by Moses because of the hardness of man's 
heart, that to put away one's wife (Matthew alone al- 
lows adultery as a reason for so doing) and to marry 
another is to commit adultery, that to put away one's 
husband and marry another is to commit adultery, that 
to marry a divorced woman is to commit adultery. 
Jesus put the standard of faithfulness in marriage so 
high that the disciples hastily and mistakenly con- 
cluded: "If the case of the man is so with his wife, 
it is not expedient to marry" (Matt. 19: 10), thus re- 
flecting the prevailingly low standards of the time. Yet 

60 



JESUS AND MARRIAGE 

an institution thus divine in its origin is not a supreme 
good in itself, nor yet eternal in its character: not a 
supreme good in itself, for at times it must be left for 
the sake of the Kingdom of God, a sacrifice rewarded 
by manifold more in this time, and in the world to 
come eternal life ; nor eternal in character, being physi- 
cal, for in heaven there is neither marrying nor giving 
in marriage, the angels in the presence of the Father 
being spirits without death and birth. 

The purity of the home Jesus safeguarded by stig- Safeguards 
matizing mental adultery (Matt. 5: 28), in contrast ^^^^^ 
with gazing on the heel or little finger of a woman 
forbidden by the rabbis ; by teaching that only innocent 
men should stone guilty women; by redeeming the 
lives of sinful women; by considering the case, con- 
trary to Jewish custom, of the woman putting away 
her husband; by attacking a sign-seeking generation 
as adulterous, not merely because of the absence of 
spiritual religion but because of lax standards of 
morality; and by enjoining severely radical means of 
securing self-control (Matt. 5: 29, 30). 

Undoubtedly he thought of the sphere of woman as No Discrimina- 
being in the home, grinding at the mill preparing the tion Against 
meal for the daily bread, putting leaven into the meal, 
bringing water from the village fountain, hunting for 
a lost coin, and mending rents in old garments, though 
among the company of ministering women was Joanna, 
the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas, who 
also, with other women, went to the sepulchre to em- 
balm the body of Jesus. Though the rabbis taught 
that "he who talked with a woman was qualifying for 
Gehenna," Jesus talked with women, made them his 
friends, and rendered them service. There is nothing 
in the teaching of Jesus sanctioning discrimination 

61 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS jESUS SAW THEM 



The FamUy 
a Type of 
the Kingdom 



A Question 



against woman, polygamy, polyandry, universal celibacy, 
free love, a double standard of morals, marriage as "an 
association terminable at the will of either party"; 
nothing sacrificing the family in the interest of the 
ideal, as did Plato; or making the family obligatory 
upon all. Those who should not marry are the physi- 
cally unfit and the spiritually devoted who can receive 
it. 

Jesus taught the duty of children to honor father 
and mother, exposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees 
in offering as gifts to the Temple money with which 
they should have supported their parents, knew about 
fathers selecting good gifts for their children, drew 
illustrations from obedient and disobedient and prodigal 
sons, called God the Father of man, regarded all men 
as sons of God and so as brothers, transfigured family 
life in the prayer taught the disciples, took the family 
virtue of love rather than the state virtue of justice 
for the first and second commandments, and himself 
became the bridegroom of the Church in the thought of 
Paul and John. Thus the religion of Jesus may be 
translated "the family of God." 

We have spoken of Jesus, not as a social reformer 
but as an inspirer of social reform, as giving not a 
social system but a social spirit, as providing not details 
of practice but principles. Shall we regard his teach- 
ing about divorce as an exception to, or an illustration 
of, his usual procedure? It would appear to be an 
exception, for once specific legislation, and as such 
tremendously significant of the importance Jesus at- 
tached to the monogamic union which is indissoluble, 
save for one cause (if indeed for that), and then is 
not to be followed by remarriage, except that that is not 
forbidden to the innocent party. 

62 



STUDY VIII 

JESUS AND THE SABBATH 

This subject is one phase of the succeeding topic. Why Treated 
treated separately here because of its largeness and 
importance. 

Our purpose does not require us to consider the Omitted Phases 
origin of the Jewish Sabbath, the cause of its develop- °' ^^ Question 
ment, its festival character in Jewish religion, its strict 
legalistic observance in the time of Jesus, the minutise 
with which its observance was celebrated, or the cur- 
rent notion of the religious leaders that acceptance 
with God depended on observing the requirements 
of the law and also the tradition of the elders which 
had grown up about the law. Some of these things 
will briefly appear in the course of the discussion. 
Jesus was born in an age that trusted the formal 
observance of ritual for salvation, or acceptance with 
God. The two main occasions of ritual were the Sab- 
bath and the sacrificial system. 

Under these circumstances the question of Sabbath Why important 
observance must needs arise in the life and teachings 
of Jesus. The question is important also for moderns, 
for it is one phase of the abiding contrast in religion 
between the outer and the inner. 

To begin with, the life of Jesus was naturally asso- His Sabbath 
ciated in a very intimate manner with the Sabbath. Associations 
He formed as a youth the habit of going to the syna- 
gogue for instruction and worship, which continued 
during his public ministry. The synagogue had a 
keeper of the sacred roll, or book, of the Old Testa- 

63 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Two Questions 



Preaching 
in Nazareth 



ment. Any male member of the congregation might 
take it, read, and comment. His fellow-citizens in 
Nazareth were not surprised that he should stand up 
to read — perhaps he had done so many times before; 
they were surprised only at what he said this time. 
Jesus observed the Sabbath according to the law of 
Moses throughout his public work, as he understood 
the law, not according to traditions that had grown up 
about it. He both healed and taught on the Sabbath. 
He even recognized the tradition that one was per- 
mitted to travel only a short distance, about a mile, 
on the Sabbath, in his injunction to his disciples that 
in view of the severity of the end they should pray that 
their flight be not in winter, nor on a Sabbath (Matt. 
24: 20). The approach of the Sabbath, which in this 
case was also the Passover, hurried the preparations 
for his crucifixion and his burial, which must be done 
before sunset on Friday when the Sabbath began. He 
lay in the tomb on the Sabbath, but his appearances 
to his disciples were thereafter only on the first day 
of the week. Such in brief indicates how his life was 
outwardly related to the Sabbath. 

What use did Jesus make of the Sabbath? And 
how did this use in some instances scandalize the 
Jews ? These two questions can be considered together. 
Among the things Jesus did on the Sabbath, the follow- 
ing are recorded as of note. 

He preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, certainly 
once, perhaps twice. This was on the Sabbath day, the 
natural time for him to receive a hearing. He was 
rejected, not because of any violation of the Sabbath, 
but because of the content of his message. His fel- 
low-citizens thought they knew him too well to justify 
them in acknowledging his claims. 

64 



JESUS AND THE SABBATH 

The first conflict between Jesus and the Jews regard- The Bethesda 
ing Sabbath observance was occasioned by his curing Cripple Cured 
the cripple at Bethesda. The man had been an invalid 
for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him lying near the 
pool, knew he had been in that condition a long time, 
had compassion on him, and asked him: "Do you wish 
to have health and strength?" The sufferer replied 
respectfully to the sympathetic stranger that he had 
no one to put him into the pool when the water was 
moved, but while he was coming some one else would 
step down before him. Jesus said, "Rise, take up your 
mat, and walk." The man did as he was told and was 
restored. It was the Sabbath. 

The Jews objected to the man's carrying his mat Objection of 
on the Sabbath day. H he were in danger of death, he *^® J®^^ 
could be carried on his mat on the Sabbath day, but as 
a cured man to carry his mat was to be carrying a 
burden, so doing work, and so violating the Sabbath. 
A man must empty even his pockets before the Sabbath, 
lest he carry a burden. The man's defense was that he 
who cured him told him to do so, but he could not tell 
them who it was, and Jesus had passed out unnoticed, 
the place being crowded. Later Jesus made himself 
known in the Temple to the man, who reported now 
to the Jews that it was Jesus who had restored him 
to health. Then the Jews began to persecute Jesus 
because, first, he had bidden a man carry a burden on 
the Sabbath day and, second, had healed a man not in 
imminent danger of death. 

The significant reply of Jesus to their accusation was : Rebuttal 
"My Father works unceasingly and so do I." This ^^J^^^^ 
reply meant the Jews were mistaken in supposing God 
rested the seventh day after the six days of creation, 
that his nature was unceasing activity, that similar 

65 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

activity on the part of Jesus was unobjectionable. His 
reply made the Jews all the more eager to put him to 
death because he both broke the Sabbath and spoke 
of God as his own Father. 
Casting Out Once in Capernaum on the Sabbath day he entered 

an Unclean [^110 the synagogue and taught. Unlike the scribes, 
quoting opinions, he taught with authority, that is, 
with independent interpretation and individual pro- 
nouncement of truth. There was a man in the syna- 
gogue who had a spirit of an unclean devil, that is, 
vile speech proceeded out of his mouth, and Jesus 
healed him. No objection was made, possibly none 
of the ritualistic Jews were present, but amazement 
came upon all, and there went forth a rumor concern- 
ing him into all Galilee. 
Healing Peter's That same Sabbath, on leaving the synagogue, he 
Mother-in-Law ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^f gjjj^Qj^ p^^^j. ^^^ Andrew, with 

James and John. The mother of Peter's wife was sick 
with a high fever. They besought him for her and he 
healed her. Then in turn she ministered unto them. 
That Sabbath of two cures was over at sunset, after 
which many others, perhaps detained by religious 
scruples hitherto, appeared at the door and were healed. 
Plucking Ears Once in autumn Jesus was going through the grain 
of Gram fields on a Sabbath day. His disciples were hungry, and 

doubtless having learned from preceding experiences 
that Jesus was no legalistic observer of the Sabbath, 
began to pluck the ears of grain, rub them in their 
hands, and to eat. There would have been nothing 
improper in so doing on a week day. The law said: 
"When thou comest into thy neighbor's standing grain, 
then thou mayest pluck the ears with thy hand; but 
thou shall not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's stand- 
ing grain" (Deut. 23: 25). But on a Sabbath day the 

66 



JESUS AND THE SABBATH 

Pharisees held that plucking was reaping and rubbing 
was threshing, things not lawful on the Sabbath. They 
complainingly asked Jesus why his disciples did so. 

The answer of Jesus on this occasion was full and justified 
explicit, as though he fully realized the gravamen of ^y Jesus 
the offense. First, physical need justified the conduct 
of the disciples, as illustrated by the example of David 
who, being hungry, ate the shew-bread in the house of 
God, and gave to those with him, though only the 
priests could legally partake of it. Physical need justi- 
fied the violation of a ritualistic custom otherwise un- 
lawful. Second, he asked, "Have ye not read in the law 
how that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple 
profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?" (Matt. 12: 
5). That is, the law required the temple service which 
involved carrying burdens on the Sabbath, though that 
the law forbade. But the greatness of the Temple and 
the importance of its service was held to justify break- 
ing the law. "But I say unto you that one greater than 
the temple is here" (Matt. 12: 6). That is, the service 
of persons, who are of supreme value, leaves guiltless 
those who break the Sabbath regulation. Third, he 
continues, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I 
desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have con- 
demned the guiltless" (Matt. 12: 7). That is, in rais- 
ing their objection, they were putting the letter of 
sacrifice, prescription, and regulation above the spirit 
of mercy, which relieves need even on the Sabbath. 
Fourth, he sums up the three answers given in an 
aphorism: "The sabbath was made for man, and not 
man for the sabbath: so that the Son of Man is lord 
even of the sabbath" (Mark 2: 27, 28). That is, even 
so valuable an institution as the Sabbath existed not 
for itself nor to be served, but to serve man, so that 

67 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

the Son of man, sensing universal human need, could 
use the Sabbath for his own purposes. It was a won- 
derful statement of the case. Unfortunately we do not 
know how the Pharisees received it. Probably they 
were puzzled, though not convinced. Two opposing 
views of religion were in conflict — legalism and service. 
Restoring a On another Sabbath he entered again into one of 

Withered Hand ^-j^gjj. synagogues and taught. There was a man pres- 
ent with a withered right hand. The man was not in 
mortal peril, otherwise healing him would have been 
no offense. No doubt, too, the man could have waited 
till after sunset to be healed, when the Sabbath would 
be over, but it was convenient to heal him then and 
there. The scribes and the Pharisees watched Jesus 
to see whether he would heal him. They were seeking 
for some accusation to lodge against him. Jesus knew 
their thoughts, and he knew what he would do without 
fear or compromise. He said to the man: "Rise up, 
and stand forth in the midst." Then came their ques- 
tion: "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?" 
Defense of The reply of Jesus in this case was : *T ask you, is it 

lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm? to 
save a life or to destroy it? What man shall there 
be of you, that shall have one sheep, and if this fall 
into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on 
it, and lift it out? How much then is a man of more 
value than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do good 
on the sabbath day." The argument here is by analogy 
from the precedent of a case which they allowed, that 
is, lifting a sheep from a pit on the Sabbath. How 
much more should a man be lifted out of his infirmity? 
In this case we know the effect of his argument : they 
lield their peace. There was no answer in reason. 
(Luke 6:9; Matt. 12: 11, 12.) 
68 



Jesus 



JESUS AND THE SABBATH 

Then Jesus "looked round about on them all with 
anger, being grieved at the hardening of their heart" 
(Mark 3:5). He healed the man. 

This so infuriated the Pharisees that they took coun- 
sel together what they might do to him, and went out 
and joined with their own enemies, the Herodians, who 
as a political party were ready to oppose any Messiah 
who would dethrone the Herods, that religion and 
politics combined might destroy him. 

Jesus was cognizant of this plot, and its occasion. Further 
Later, at the feast of tabernacles, Jesus defended him- Seif-Defense 
self in the Temple against the charge of Sabbath-break- 
ing as follows: "I did one work, and ye all marvel 
because thereof. Moses hath given you circumcision 
(not that it is of Moses but of the fathers) ; and on 
the sabbath ye circumcise a man. If a man receiveth 
circumcision on the sabbath, that the law of Moses may 
not be broken, are ye wroth with me, because I made 
a man every whit whole on the sabbath?" (John 7: 21- 
23). The argument here is similar to that of the temple 
service above, viz. if it is guiltless to violate the Sabbath 
in performing circumcision that the law may be kept, 
how much more is it guiltless to violate the Sabbath 
in a work of mercy that a man may be made whole? 
The contrast is between legalism and personality. 
Helping a man is no more violation of the Sabbath than 
keeping a law. 

On another Sabbath Jesus spat on the ground, made Healing a Man 
clay of the spittle, anointed the eyes of a man born blind, ^°™ ^^^ 
and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. Here 
was a case similar to that of the invalid on his mat — 
there was healing of a person not sick unto death and 
work involved in making and applying the clay. The 
man came seeing. His interested neighbors recognized 

69 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Healing a 
Bowed Woman 



The Objection 



Reply of Jesus 



this as a case for Pharisaic consideration. They 
brought him to the Pharisees, not knowing where Jesus 
was. To them the man repeated his story. Some of 
them said: "This man is not from God, because he 
keepeth not the Sabbath." Others, however, said: 
"How can a man that is a sinner do such signs?" On 
this occasion they were unable to come at Jesus, but 
they excommunicated the man for defending him. To 
them making the blind see could not counteravail for 
making clay of spittle. Ritualistic restraint outweighed 
human service in their religion. 

On another Sabbath he was teaching in one of the 
synagogues. There was a woman present who for 
eighteen years had been bowed together without being 
able to lift herself up. Jesus healed her by laying his 
hands upon her. This was a case unattended by any 
offending circumstance like carrying a mat or making 
clay of spittle, but was simply healing a person not 
near death. 

The ruler of the synagogue, steeped in the legalism 
of the Pharisees, was indignant because Jesus had 
healed on the Sabbath, and addressed the multitude: 
"There are six days in which man ought to work: in 
them therefore come and be healed and not on the day 
of the sabbath" (Luke 13: 14). His language recalled 
the six days of creation and suggested that coming 
and being healed was work. 

His address aroused the spirit of Jesus to reply : "Ye 
hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the sabbath 
loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him 
away to watering? And ought not this woman, being 
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, 
these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this 
bond on the day of the sabbath?" (Luke 13: 15, 16). 

70 



JESUS AND THE SABBATH 

The law allowed them to loose ox or ass for watering, 
but not to loose a woman for healing. Such religion 
was deceptive, hypocritical. This clever thrust of Jesus 
was not without effect, for his adversaries were shamed 
and the multitudes rejoiced. 

A sixth case of healing was that of the man with the Healing a 
dropsy. Five of these cases are reported by the physi- Man With 
cian Luke, and two of them by him only. In this 
instance Jesus was not in the synagogue but in the 
house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, whither 
he had gone to eat bread. He was being watched, as 
usual. "And behold, there was a certain man before 
him that had the dropsy," who had probably made free 
to come in. This time Jesus took the initiative and 
asked the lawyers and Pharisees: "Is it lawful to heal 
on the sabbath, or not?" (Luke 14: 3). Perhaps 
through caution born of past experience, they held 
their peace. Jesus healed the man and let him go. 
Then he defended himself by an argument similar to 
that of the one sheep in the pit, as follows : "Which of 
you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a well, and 
will not straightway draw him up on a sabbath day?" 
(Luke 14: 5). If an ass is released, why not a man? 
They could not answer him. In fact, in all the cases 
of supposed breaking of the Sabbath, no answer is 
given to his position. 

So far we have noted that among the deeds done by Types of 
Jesus, or his company, on the Sabbath day were these : Sabbath 
attending the synagogue service, reading the Old Testa- 
ment roll, commenting on it, teaching, plucking ears 
of grain as they walked through the fields, and healing 
the sick and afflicted. There is still another type of 
deed of Jesus on the Sabbath to be noted, namely, par- 
taking of the festive meal. 

71 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



A Sabbath 
Meal 



The Supper 
in Bethany 



Sabbath 
Hospitality 
No Offense 



The incident noted above of healing the man with the 
dropsy occurred on the Sabbath in the house of one 
of the rulers of the Pharisees. Jesus was being watched 
at the time, and he showed himself a most unusual 
guest. Not only did he work a deed of healing, but 
he spoke a parable against those who were choosing 
out the chief seats for themselves at the meal, gave 
instructions to his host as to inviting to his feast those 
who could not recompense him, and spoke also the 
parable of the slighted invitation to supper. These 
topics were all appropriate to the occasion and spon- 
taneously given by Jesus. We do not know the effect. 

Another illustration of the social festive meal on 
the Sabbath was that of the supper in the Bethany home. 
It was the Sabbath before the triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem on the following day. Lazarus, who had 
been raised from the dead, reclined at meat with them, 
Martha served, and Mary anointed his feet with a 
pound of "very precious" nard, and wiped them with 
her hair, filling the house with the odor of the oint- 
ment. Judas, the thieving treasurer, complained that 
the ointment was not rather sold and given to the poor. 
Jesus defended the generous expression of gratitude 
and hospitality in view of his burying, occurring the 
following Friday, which would soon remove him from 
them, while the poor always remained. Hearing of 
his presence in the village, the common people of the 
Jews came to see both him and Lazarus, on whose ac- 
count many of the Jews believed on Jesus. On this 
account the chief priests included Lazarus also in the 
counsel of death. 

In accepting hospitality on the Sabbath Jesus did 
not violate any law or tradition of the elders. And 
though the accusation of Sabbath-breaking was one of 

72 



JESUS AND THE SABBATH 

the chief causes of conflict between Jesus and the Jews, 

it was not a capital offense, and so did not appear in 

the charges against him at the trial. His use of the 

Sabbath caused other charges to be preferred against 

him, but was not itself a charge. 

From this review of the deeds of Jesus on the Sab- Points of 

bath we may derive his point of view regarding: its Agreement 

11 . , . , , , ,. andDis- 

observance, and the pomts wherem he agreed and dis- agreement 

agreed with the Jewish observance of the day. With his 
enemies he accepted the Sabbath as a religious insti- 
tution, and criticised, not its existence, but the mode of 
its observance. The things he did on the Sabbath which 
excited no criticism were attending the synagogue, 
reading, preaching, teaching, and being entertained in 
homes. It is very probable that Jesus and his com- 
pany did not violate "the Sabbath day's journey" tradi- 
tion, that one should not travel on a Sabbath more than 
two thousand cubits — about a mile {cf. Matt. 24: 20). 
On the other hand, the things he did which commanded 
criticism were: allowing the disciples to pluck and rub 
ears of grain, healing, commanding a man to carry his 
mat whereon he had been lying ill, and making clay of 
spittle. 

From his defense in these latter cases we can find no Conclusions 
encouragement to Sabbatarianism, but the use of the 
Sabbath to do good to the bodies and spirits of men 
according to their need, and the recognition of religion 
not as legalism, but as divine and human service. Jesus 
himself kept the law in spirit, but rejected the tradi- 
tions of the elders as heavy burdens grievous to be 
borne. It is thoroughly in keeping with the practice 
and teaching of Jesus that he should actually have 
spoken the words attributed to him by one of the manu- 
scripts, as follows: "On the same day [as the incident 

73 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

of the grain fields] seeing one working on the Sabbath, 
he said unto him, *0 man, if indeed thou knowest what 
thou doest, thou art blessed; but if thou knowest not, 
thou art accursed, and a transgressor of the law.' " 
Jesus was no antinomian, nor yet a legalist, but a serv- 
ant of the spirit. 
The Lord's It remains only to note that it is in full keeping with 

^*y the free spirit with which Jesus observed the Sabbath, 

with his rejection of the idea that God rested on the 
seventh day or ever rests, with his teaching that the 
Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath, with his resurrec- 
tion on the first day of the week, with his five ap- 
pearances to his disciples only on the first day of the 
week, that the observance of the seventh day should 
have early passed to the first day of the week, and 
that this day even in the apostolic age should have 
come to be known as "the Lord's day" (Rev. i : lo). 

This study will help us in the following one on the 
ittitude of Jesus toward the religious authorities. 



74 



STUDY IX 
JESUS AND THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

This is the appropriate title, suggested by the cir- The Question 
cumstances of the life of Jesus, under which to discuss 
the theme and have in mind the relation of Jesus to the 
church of his day. It will throw light on the question 
of the relation of followers of Jesus to the church of 
our day. The church, state, business, home, and school 
are our greatest social institutions. The public life of 
Jesus was spent in constant service of "publicans and 
sinners" under constant cross-fire from "the righteous," 
in ministering physically and spiritually to the multi- 
tudes while combating intellectually the scribes and 
Pharisees. 

The outward life of Jesus was spent in continual The Law 
contact with the influence of the synagogue and the and His Life 
leaders of the Jewish religion. The chief priests and 
scribes were able to tell Herod the Great that the 
Christ should be born in Bethlehem. According to the The Law and 
law of Moses, eight days after his birth he was cir- ^^ infancy 
cumcised; and again after forty days he was presented 
in the Temple. At the Presentation the righteous and 
devout Simeon blessed him and told Mary he was set 
for the falling and rising up of many in Israel, and 
for a sign which is spoken against. Likewise, the aged 
prophetess Anna spoke of him to all them that were 
looking for the redemption of Israel. "And when they 
had accomplished all things that were according to the 
law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their 
own city Nazareth" (Luke 2: 39). 

75 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



The Law and 
His Boyhood 
and Youth 



Public 
Contact 
with the 
Religious 
Authorities 



His parents, being devout persons and obedient to 
the law, were accustomed to go every year to the feast 
of the Passover. Jesus was brought up to anticipate 
his own celebration of this feast when he should be 
twelve. When the time came, he was prepared for 
it. The experience was an absorbing one to him. In 
his Father's house he saw the doctors of the law, heard 
them, asked them questions, and astonished them by 
his own understanding and answers. He derived from 
this experience something to think about henceforth. 
Thereafter, doubtless every year he observed the family 
habit of attending this feast. Without doubt also as a 
boy he had attended the village school in the syna- 
gogue where he learned to read the law and to write. 
Also he formed the habit of attending the synagogue 
service of instruction and prayer on the Sabbath. 

During his short public ministry he was constantly 
in even closer contact with the established religious 
life and leaders of the time. He ate twice, or per- 
haps three times, in the homes of Pharisees. He healed 
the daughter of Jairus, one of the rulers of the syna- 
gogue. Though regarding himself as free from the 
obligation, he nevertheless paid the half-shekel temple 
tax (Matt. 17: 24-27). He commanded the ten lepers 
to go and show themselves to the priests, as the law 
required cleansed lepers to do. He revealed to the 
rich young ruler his one weakness. He taught Nico- 
demus, a teacher in Israel, a ruler of the Jews, con- 
cerning the new birth necessary for the Pharisaic class, 
as for all. 

Once when the Pharisees heard that the disciples of 
Jesus were baptizing more than John, he left Judaea, 
the scene of possible trouble, for Galilee. He taught 
in the synagogues in Galilee, especially in Nazareth 

76 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

and Capernaum, and preached that the Kingdom was 
at hand. This did he also in the synagogues through- 
out Palestine. He answered the question of the Phari- 
sees concerning the time when the Kingdom of God 
should come. 

It is evident that the outward life of Jesus was spent Jesus Re- 
in intimate contact with the religious authorities and spected the 

Law and its 

their iMfluence^ It is also already apparent that Jesus offices, not 
kept the requirements of the Jewish law, and sought its Officials 
to avoid giving offense to the ecclesiastical powers. As 
we proceed, we shall see that his work brought him 
inevitably under their criticism, against which Jesus 
defended himself, then moved to the attack, which he 
correctly anticipated would cost him his life. 

Passing from contacts to conflicts, one of the main Sources of 
occasions of their hostile criticism was his works of ^^^^^^^ 
mercy on the Sabbath day, previously considered. The Sabbath 

Another was the demand for a sign. The religious The Demand 
leaders wanted Jesus to work some supernatural and ^°^ ^ ^*^ 
convincing wonder in their presence as proof of his 
Messiahship, or even religious leadership, such as 
casting himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple 
while being borne up by angels — a temptation he once 
for all rejected, at least until his second coming. He 
was working signs all the time in wonderful healings 
through compassion, with no intent of thereby being 
accepted as Messiah, but the Jews wanted something 
openly and obviously done to convince even skeptics. 
Thus, after cleansing the Temple, he was asked by the 
Jews: "What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that 
thou doest these things?" (John 2: 18). Likewise in 
the borders of Magadan the Pharisees and Sadducees 
came and, tempting him, asked him "to show them a 
sign from heaven" (Matt. 16: i). It was a repetition 

77 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



His Reply 

(I) 

The Resur- 
rection 



(2) 

Jonah 



(3) 

"An Evil and 

Adulterous 

Generation" 

(4) 

Weather Signs 



Meaning of 
His Reply 



of the temptation in the wilderness. Likewise, after 
his healing the dumb demoniac, the scribes and Phari- 
sees in the presence of the multitude said : "Master, we 
would see a sign from thee" (Matt. 12: 38). 

Jesus never acceded to the demand for a sign. In- 
stead he referred them to his resurrection, which they 
did not understand, though they and the disciples re- 
membered the saying later, when they asked for the 
guard for the sepulchre and the disciples were con- 
fronted with the empty tomb. "Destroy this temple 
and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2: 19), 
he said. 

He also referred them to the sign of Jonah the 
prophet, in connection with his own resurrection. 
Twice he gave them this reference. 

Twice also he condemned the search for a sign as 
characteristic of "an evil and adulterous generation." 

Once, with withering sarcasm, he rebuked them for 
not being able to discern the signs of the times when 
their weather-lore allowed them to discern the face 
of the heaven. 

What is the inner unity in these four answers to the 
demand for a sign? His resurrection was future; 
Jonah was past; the evil and adulterous generation, 
and the reading of weather-signs were present. The 
inner unity is that a generation doing wickedness and 
guilty of adulterous irreligion had only material but 
no spiritual insight. To accede to a demand for a 
materialistic wonder would likewise be ineffective. "If 
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither would 
they believe, though one rose from the dead," Abraham 
says to Dives (Luke 16: 31). However, those who 
look for signs may some day remember the analogy 
between Jonah in the fish and Jesus in the tomb. These 

78 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

occurrences were not given as signs, but may be taken 
as signs. In short, the order of existence itself is divine 
and no possible interference with it is effective with 
those devoid of spiritual insight. Jesus said, in effect, 
to the sign-seeking Jews: if you do not see God in 
what I am doing, still less would you see Him in what 
you demand that I do. It was the asseveration of inner 
spiritual insight against outer material eyesight. 

Another cause of conflict between Jesus and the HisFor- 
religious authorities was his forgiveness of sins. The giving Sins 
occasion was when four friends of a man sick with 
palsy had let him down before Jesus through the tiles 
from the roof. Jesus saw their faith and doubtless The Sick of 
also understood that the disease of the man was largely ^^ ^^^^ 
nervous, due to sins committed. Going to the root of 
the matter, Jesus said unto the sick of the palsy: 
"Man, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." 
This caused certain of the scribes and Pharisees sitting 
there to reason within themselves, saying, "Why doth 
this man thus speak? He blasphemeth. Who can for- 
give sins but one, even God?" (Mark 2: y). 

On another occasion Jesus was anointed by a sin- Anointing by 
ful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee as he * dinner 
sat at meat. She brought a flask of ointment, perhaps 
the same she had used in enticing lovers in the city, 
stood behind Jesus weeping as he reclined at table, 
wet his feet with her tears, wiped them with the 
hair of her head, kissed his feet over and over again, 
and anointed them with the ointment. It was a gracious 
and humble expression of her penitent love, and Jesus 
appreciated it. But it scandalized Simon, his host, 
that a man considered a prophet should allow himself 
to be even touched by a sinful woman. By the parable 
of the two debtors and by contrasting what the woman 

79 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

had done with what Simon had failed to do for his 
guest, Jesus justified her. "Wherefore I say unto thee, 
her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved 
much." And to the woman he said, "Thy sins are 
forgiven" (Luke 7: 47, 48). Those who reclined at 
meat with him began to say within themselves, "Who 
is this that even forgiveth sins?" 
His Reply We have the reply of Jesus to the complaint only 

in the case of the man sick of the palsy, an incident 
reported by all the synoptic writers. He said: "Why 
reason ye these things in your hearts? Wherefore 
think ye evil? Whether is it easier to say to the sick 
of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say. 
Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye 
may know that the Son of Man hath authority on earth 
to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I 
say unto thee. Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto 
thy house" (Mark 2: 8-11). The points in the reply 
are, first, it is evil to think he could not forgive sin; 
second, it was as easy to cure the soul as to cure the 
body, though, third, the cure of the body may give 
convincing proof of his authority to cure the soul. 
His Disciples to It should be recalled in this connection that Jesus 
Forgive Sins shared the power of forgiving sins on earth with Peter 
and the other disciples. At the time of the great con- 
fession, when Peter had answered: "Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16: 16), 
Jesus said among other things: "I will give unto thee 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever 
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and 
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed 
in heaven" (Matt. 16: 18, 19). Again, in the con- 
versation with the disciples on true greatness and for- 
giveness, Jesus used the same language in speaking to 

80 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

all of them : "Verily I say unto you, What things soever 
ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and 
what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven" (Matt. i8: i8). Still again, the 
risen Christ addressed his disciples: "Peace be unto 
you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you" 
(John 20: 21) ; and then, breathing on them, he con- 
tinued: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit: v^hose soever 
sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose 
soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20: 22, 
23). He also taught that God would not forgive one 
who did not forgive, and that God would forgive one 
who forgave. The view of Jesus was that one sent 
of God expressed or withheld God's forgiveness. So 
he pronounced forgiveness, commissioned Peter and 
the other disciples to do the same, and also defined the 
sin which could not be forgiven, of which more pres- 
ently. 

Another criticism they passed on him was calling "My Father" 
God his own Father. In defending himself against the 
charge of violating the Sabbath in healing the invalid 
at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus had said: "My Father AtBethesda 
worketh even until now and I work" (John 5: 17). 
The Jews sought then all the more to kill him, be- 
cause in addition to breaking the Sabbath he "also 
called God his own Father, making himself equal with 
God" (John 5: 18). The offense here was not in 
calling God "Father" but "My Father." 

Again, at the feast of the dedication, Jesus asserted At the Feast of 
his sonship and unity with the Father. "I and the the Dedication 
Father are one" (John 10: 30). When the Jews took 
up stones to stone him, Jesus answered them: "Many 
good works have I showed you from the Father; for 
which of those works do ye stone me?" The Jews 

81 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



His Reply 



No Blasphemy 
in Sonship 



In League with 
Beelzebub 



answered: "For a good work we stone thee not, but 
for blasphemy; and because that thou being a man, 
makest thyself God" (John lo: 32, 33). They had 
charged him with blasphemy also when he spoke the 
word of forgiveness to the man sick of the palsy. 

Jesus justified himself as the Son of the Father, 
first, by being able to do nothing of himself, and doing 
only as he first saw the Father doing, as quickening 
the dead, judging, receiving honor, and having life in 
himself; second, by not bearing witness of himself, but 
having the witness of John the Baptist, his own works, 
the witness of the Father Himself (at the baptism), 
and of the Scriptures. Jesus explained their rejec- 
tion of him through their not having the love of God 
in themselves and receiving glory one of another. Both 
this charge and the answer of Jesus to it are contained 
only in John's gospel, the philosophical interpretation 
of the life of Jesus. 

Against the charge of blasphemy in calling himself 
the Son of God, Jesus replied by quoting the Scrip- 
tures they accepted: "Ye are gods" (Psalm 82: 6). 
If they to whom the word of God came were truly called 
"gods," could not he, sanctified and sent into the world 
by the Father, without blasphemy call himself "Son 
of God"? A careful study of the defense of Jesus 
against the charge of blasphemy in calling God his 
own Father indicates to me that Jesus meant by his 
Sonship that he worked in unison with the will of God, 
that he meant something functional and practical and 
nothing substantial or metaphysical. To the Greek 
philosophers doing was a form of thinking; to Jesus 
thinking was a form of doing. 

The false charge against Jesus that wounded his 
sensitive nature most deeply and rankled most in his 

82 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 



memory was the charge that he was in league with the 
evil one. In his third temptation he had especially 
rejected such a league, though it might win him the 
world. The charge was first made just after the very 
unusual cure of one possessed with a blind and dumb 
demon. The multitudes marveled and were asking the 
Messianic question: Can this be the Son of David? 
But some of the scribes and Pharisees who had come 
from Jerusalem, hearing the question, said : "This man 
doth not cast out demons but by Beelzebub, the prince 
of the demons" (Matt. 12: 24). 

Again, on another occasion he healed a dumb man 
possessed of a devil. The multitudes marveled and 
said, "It was never so seen in Israel." But the Phari- 
sees said : "By the prince of devils casteth he out devils" 
(Matt. 9- 34)- 

Once in Jerusalem, at the feast of the dedication, 
when he said, "My teaching is not mine, but his that 
sent me. ... Why seek ye to kill me?" the mul- 
titude caught up the cry of their religious leaders and 
said, "Thou hast a demon: who seeketh to kill thee?" 
(John 7: 20). This charge, however, hardly meant 
more than that they thought he was beside himself, as 
indeed even his friends and relatives once thought. 
At the same feast the charge was twice repeated by 
the Jews, as follows: "Say we not well that thou art 
a Samaritan and hast a devil?" (John 8: 48), and 
again, "Now we know thou hast a devil. Abraham 
is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest. If a man 
keep my word, he shall never taste of death" (John 

8:52). 

Once again, after his discourse on himself as the good 
shepherd, many of the Jews said: "He hath a devil 
and is mad; why hear ye him?" though others said: 

83 



A Blind and 
Dumb Demon 



A Dumb 
Demon 



At the Feast of 
the Dedication 



"He hath 
a Demon" 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



His Reply 

Insanity 

Denied 



Refutation 
of Charge of 
League with 
Beelzebub 



"These are not the sayings of him that hath a devil. 
Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" (John lo: 
20, 21 ). 

To the charge repeatedly made by the Jews and once 
made by the multitude that he had a demon of insanity, 
Jesus uttered a categorical denial : "I have not a demon ; 
but I honor my Father, and ye dishonor me" (John 

8: 49). 

To the charge that he was in league with Beelzebub, 
a stinging charge that cut to the quick, he answered in 
parables. How can Satan cast out Satan? A king- 
dom, city, or house that is divided against itself cannot 
stand. 

Besides, in retort, Jesus asked, "By w^hom do your 
sons cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges" 
(Luke II : 19). 

Further, Jesus was spoiling Satan*s goods, which he 
could not do unless, being stronger, he had first over- 
come Satan. Not being with Satan, he must be against 
him. 

In this connection Jesus, who, "by the finger of God," 
through the Holy Spirit had done his work which 
was falsely attributed to an unclean spirit, said the 
charge was an eternal sin which should never be for- 
given, neither in this world nor in that which is to 
come. All other sins, even speaking against the Son 
of Man, should be forgiven. 

From this definition of the unpardonable sin, Jesus 
passed on to sternest rebuke in the words: "Ye off- 
spring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good 
things?" (Matt. 12: 34). 

Then he likened "this evil generation" to a man 
cleansed of one unclean spirit who later receives it 
back with seven others more evil than the first. No 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 



other charge against Jesus does he so elaborately re- 
fute. 

The sum of his refutation is (i) it is absurd that 
Satan should be his own enemy; (2) Jesus as the 
enemy of Satan in working cures is stronger than he; 
(3) to attribute deeds inspired by the Holy Spirit to 
Satan is an unforgivable sin, showing a dead soul in- 
capable of forgiving and so receiving forgiveness; (4) 
such evil things proceed out of an evil heart; and (5) 
the evil heart of this generation is due to a self-right- 
eous legalism, a religion of emptiness, harboring not 
only uncleanness but seven other spirits more evil still. 
Thus he returned the charge of having an unclean 
spirit on his accusers seven times over. 

But that the charge rankled still in his memory is Recalling 
seen from the fact that one thing he said among many ^® charge 
in sending out the twelve, having given them authority 
over unclean spirits, was : "If they have called the mas- 
ter of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they 
call them of his household?" (Matt. 10: 25). 

Another charge brought against him by the religious 
authorities was associating with sinners. We saw 
above how Simon the Pharisee thought Jesus could 
not be a prophet because he allowed a penitent sinful 
woman to touch his feet. 

At the feast made for Jesus by his publican disciple, 
Matthew Levi, in his house in Capernaum, a great mul- 
titude of publicans and sinners came and sat at meat 
with them. On seeing it, the Pharisees and their scribes 
murmured against his disciples and said: "Why eateth 
your master with publicans and sinners?" (Matt. 9: 
n). 

On another occasion, when all the publicans and 
sinners were drawing near unto him to hear him, both 



Association 
With Sinners 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This 
man receiveth sinners and eateth with them" (Luke 
15: 2). 
His Reply The reply of Jesus to these criticisms, so obvious now 

to us that its significance for his period is somewhat 
dulled, was first, the sick, not the whole, have need 
of a physician ; second, God desires mercy, not sacrifice ; 
and third, the three parables of the one lost sheep 
from the flock of one hundred, the one lost piece of 
silver from the collection of ten pieces, and the lost 
younger son of two. There is doubtless some satire 
in the saying *T came not to call the righteous" (Matt. 
9: 13) — only in their own esteem were the Pharisees 
righteous. The three parables teach that the Pharisees 
and scribes, so far from being critical and surly, should 
imitate the angels and rejoice over one repentant sin- 
ner. In the parable of the lost son, the attitude of the 
Pharisees and scribes is portrayed in the elder son 
while the younger son represents the "sinners." 
Not Fasting Another criticism was that his disciples did not fast. 

Both the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fast- 
ing. Jesus himself reports the criticism as follows: 
"John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; 
and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man is come 
eating and drinking, and ye say. Behold a gluttonous 
man and a wine-bibber" (Luke 7: 34). The difficulty 
impressed itself upon John's disciples also, some of 
whom came to Jesus and said: "Why do we and the 
Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?" (Matt. 
9: 14). 
His Reply Jesus replied to this difficulty by likening himself 

(i) The to a bridegroom and the disciples to the sons of the 

Bridegroom bride-chamber. The Gospel was the occasion of festive 
joy. 

86 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 



On another occasion Jesus used a similar figure when 
he likened the generation which rejected both John 
and himself to children in the market-place who would 
play neither funeral nor wedding. 

But the day would come, he told the disciples of 
John, when the bridegroom would be taken away, and 
then his disciples would fast. 

Further, he told them that the Gospel was like new 
cloth or new wine, not to be used on old garments 
or put in old wine-skins, such as fasting. 

He also explained their difficulty very tactfully to 
them in observing "no man having drunk old wine 
desireth new" (Luke 5: 39). Jesus neither proscribed 
nor prescribed fasting; he allowed and encouraged it 
under certain conditions of need, and gave instructions 
concerning it, as a secret observance to the Father, in 
the Sermon on the Mount. 

Once upon his disciples and once upon himself criti- 
cism was passed for eating without first washing the 
hands. Such washing to the Pharisees was a part of 
ceremonial cleanness; today it would be a part of 
hygienic cleanliness. The Pharisees and some scribes 
who had come from Jerusalem observed that the disci- 
ples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashen 
hands. This was against the tradition of the elders, 
kept by the Pharisees and all the Jews, who washed 
their hands up to the elbow before eating; otherwise, 
they ate not. On returning from the contaminating 
market-place, they bathed before eating. Other things 
they received from the elders to hold were the cere- 
monial washings of cups, pots, and brazen vessels. 
So these Pharisees and scribes, seeing the disciples 
eat bread without first washing their hands, asked 
Jesus: "Why walk not thy disciples according to the 

87 



(2) A Wed- 
ding 



(3) A Time to 
Fast 



(4) New Cloth 
and Wine 



Eating 

Without 

Washing 



Complaint 
Against the 
Disciples 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Complaint 
Against Jesus 



His Reply 
Defending 
His Disciples 
(i) Hypocrisy 



(2) Corban 



(3) True 
Defilement 



His Reply 
Defending 
Himself 



Pharisaic Sys- 
tem Denounced 



tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled 
hands?" (Mark 7:5). 

The other occasion was just after having spoken the 
parable of the Good* Samaritan. A Pharisee asked Jesus 
to dine with him. The invitation was accepted and 
Jesus went in and sat down to meat without having 
first washed. No doubt he intentionally and purpose- 
fully omitted observing the traditional ceremony of 
oblation. But when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled 
that Jesus had not first washed before dinner. 

How did Jesus defend his disciples and himself 
against the charge of ceremonial defilement? He said, 
first, it was hypocrisy to hold fast the tradition of men 
and leave the commandment of God. Such service was 
of the lip, not of the heart. 

Second, an example of such hypocrisy, whereby the 
word of God was made void by the tradition, was the 
Corban^ in which a gift to the Temple took the place 
of honoring one's father and mother in a practical way. 
"And many such like things ye do" (Mark 7: 13). 

Third, true defilement is not from without in, through 
the mouth, but from within out, from the heart. This 
instruction Jesus gave to the multitude as well as to 
his disciples and the Pharisees. It caused the Pharisees 
to be offended, and the meaning of it had to be ex- 
plained privately to the disciples. 

In further defense of himself, Jesus said to his host, 
the astonished Pharisee, first, that a religion of externals 
was foolish, cleansing the outside of cups and platters, 
and, second, that a religion of inward purity was essen- 
tial, without extortion and wickedness. All outward 
things are clean to those clean within. 

At this point the indignation of Jesus against the 
whole Pharisaic system of ritualism, legalism, formal- 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

ism, and externalism rose to the pitch of woeful denun- 
ciation. The Pharisees tithed mint, rue, and every herb, 
legal minutiae properly observed, but omitted justice 
as between man and man and the love of God. They 
loved the chief seats in the synagogues and the saluta- 
tions in the market-places. "Woe unto you ! for ye 
are as the tombs which appear not, and the men that 
walk over them know it not" (Luke ii: 44). 

The eight main sources of conflict between Jesus and Summary 
the religfious authorities accordingly are : Sabbath ob- °* Sources 
^u A A £ ' \u £ • £ o^ Conflict 

servance, the demand for a sign, the forgiveness of 

sins, his Sonship to the Father, how he cast out devils, 
eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, not 
fasting, and not washing before eating. The eight are 
all phases of the one contrast between religion of outer 
form and inner fact. 

In addition to these conflicts in religious opinion inteUectuai 
and practice between Jesus and the ecclesiastical au- '^^^ 
thorities, there were intellectual conflicts due to their 
animosity and their desire to discredit him in the eyes 
of all. They set traps for him, usually in the form of 
a dilemma. Should the adulterous woman be stoned? 
"Yes" meant forfeiting his influence with "sinners"; stoning a 
"no" meant the religious offense of rejecting Moses. Sinner 

Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? "Yes" Divorce 
meant sanctioning the adultery of the adulterous gen- 
eration he had condemned; "no" meant the rejection 
of Moses who provided for divorce. 

Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or no ? "Yes" Tribute 
meant lack of Jewish patriotism; "no" meant Roman 
sedition. 

"Whose wife shall she be in the resurrection?" The 
asked the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection and Resurrection 
were ready to show the absurdity of her being the wife 

89 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



How He 
Escaped 



Straight 
Difficult 
Questions 
Put to Him 
"Who is My 
Neighbor?" 



"By What 
Authority?* 



of any one or all of the seven brothers who had her. 
Jesus rejected their presupposition. 

From these and other entangling puzzles Jesus ex- 
tricated himself quickly and successfully through his 
moral insight and surpassing intellectual skill, sometimes 
taking the bull by both horns, as in the case of the 
tribute; sometimes escaping between the horns, as in 
the question concerning the resurrection. The reli- 
gious authorities tried, but did not succeed in entrapping 
him in his talk. They were clever, but he, though not 
learned in their schools, and trusting to what it should 
be given him to do and say, was more clever. Each 
entangling question and his reply might be studied in 
detail with profit. 

At times, desiring to justify themselves, they put to 
him straight but difficult questions. Such was the 
question, "Who is my neighbor?" of the lawyer, who 
was doubtless ready to love his Jewish neighbors, but 
not the half-Jewish Samaritans. The parable of the 
Good Samaritan was the answer Jesus gave. 

Following the cleansing of the Temple, when Jesus 
was walking in the Temple, teaching the people, and 
preaching the Gospel, a similar question was put to 
him by the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the 
people: "Tell us, by what authority doest thou these 
things? and who gave thee this authority?" Jesus 
answered with one of their own kind of questions — 
the dilemma: "The baptism of John, whence was it? 
from heaven, or from men?" (Matt. 21: 25). He 
had caught them — either they had rejected a heavenly 
baptism or they would be stoned by the people for 
calling it earthly. With intellectual insincerity they 
retreated from the difficulty by denying that they knew 
whence the baptism was. They having refused to an- 

90 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

swer him, Jesus refused to tell the source of his au- 
thority. But he had suggested to them that, had they 
treated John aright, and received his baptism, they 
would have known the source of his own authority. He 
could answer their questions, but they could or would 
not answer his. 

His final silencing question was, "If David then call How He 
him Lord, how is he his son?" (Matt. 22: 45). The Silenced 
answer they could not find, because their materialistic 
conception of the Christ was such that they could not 
think of David as calling his physical son his Lord. It 
was the way Jesus had of indicating the spiritual, not 
temporal, character of the Messiah. The Jewish pre- 
conceptions prevented their seeing the point. No one 
was able to answer him a word. From that day they 
did not dare ask him any more questions. The intel- 
lectual combat was over, and only the common people 
still heard him gladly. He could not be discredited 
by fair means, they would resort to foul. Before pass- 
ing, however, to the base strategy whereby the reli- 
gious authorities finally got him in their power, we 
must briefly review his teaching, general in character 
and other than the preceding events, concerning them. 

Jesus combined respect for the law of Moses and Teaching 
obedience to it with rejection of its living official repre- 2e^Law*°^ 
sentatives. He went behind the letter of the law to its 
spirit and he surpassed the law in his requirements, 
as in the matters of retaliation, forgiveness, murder, 
adultery, forswearing. This he regarded not as destroy- 
ing, but as fulfilling the law. He rejected the tradi- 
tional accretions to the law, made all meats clean, 
cleansed the Temple of the sacrificial system, and said 
Jerusalem as the capital of a theocratic state should 
be destroyed. He taught respect for those that sit in 

91 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Conservative 

Progressive 

Radical 



Sonship 
Transcends, 
not Abro- 
gates, the 
Law 



Moses' seat, yet one was not to do as they did. Even 
the Sabbath day's journey he respected, which perhaps 
is his nearest recognition of one of the traditions of 
the elders. Only the Gentile, not the Jewish, Chris- 
tians in the early Church were exempted from the 
law of Moses in circumcision, etc. He repeatedly called 
for the view of Moses as his point of departure in an- 
swering a question. "What is written in the law? 
How readest thou?" (Luke lo: 26). "What did Moses 
command you?" (Mark 10: 3). With his two major 
commandments he summarized Moses and the prophets. 
He took the text for his social mission from Isaiah. 
Twice he recognized in John the Elijah who was to 
come, though John himself had said he was not Elijah. 
He recognized that a scribe who had been made a disci- 
ple of the Kingdom would, like a householder, bring 
forth out of his treasure things new and old. 

Jesus was thus conservative on the essentials of the 
law, progressive in substituting the spirit for the letter 
and the inner virtues for the sacrificial system, and 
radical in rejecting the traditions of the elders. John 
sums up the situation thus: "For the law was given 
by Moses, but grace [spirit] and truth [sincerity] came 
by Jesus Christ" (John i: 17). 

Yet Jesus recognized in his sense of unity with the 
Father, and so in his personal witness to spiritual truth, 
something greater than anything that had preceded 
him. This greater thing was the fulfilment of the law ; 
it was new cloth, new wine; it was greater than the 
Temple, than Solomon, than Jonah; it existed before 
Abraham; it was God's idea of what a man ought to 
be; according to John, it was in the beginning, it was 
with God, it was God. The consciousness which Jesus 
had of God as Father and the results flowing there- 

92 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 



from made even the jots and tittles of the law pass 
away for him and his true followers. 

There is development in the attitude of Jesus toward 
the religious authorities from avoidance of giving 
offense, to defense against criticism, to victorious in- 
tellectual combat, to open denunciation and public pil- 
loring in parables. He early anticipated that his posi- 
tion would in the end cost him his life, according to 
the Scripture. We have now to consider his warning 
against their practices and his denunciation of them. 

For his disciples he laid down the principle: "Except 
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of 
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in ne wise enter 
into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5: 20). The 
essential difference was between righteousness before 
men and before God. Three illustrations are given^ — 
alms, prayer, and fasting. In giving alms, instead of 
sounding the trumpet, the left hand is not to know what 
the right hand doeth. In praying, instead of standing 
in the synagogues and on the street corners, one is to 
enter into his inner chamber and shut the door. In 
fasting, instead of disfiguring the face, the face is to 
be washed and the head anointed. "Else ye have no 
reward with your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 
6:1). Righteousness done before men to be seen of 
them is hypocrisy. This principle and its applications 
appear as part of the charter of the Kingdom in the 
Sermon on the Mount. 

On hearing the words of faith of the Roman cen- 
turion, Jesus marveled at him, and said to the multi- 
tude that he had not found so great faith even in 
Israel, that many should come from the east and the 
west and recline with the patriarchs in the Kingdom of 
heaven, but that "the sons of the kingdom," that is, 

93 



Changes in 
Attitude 
Toward the 
Authorities 



The Principle 
Excluding 
the Pharisees 
from the 
Kingdom 



"The Sons of 
the Kingdom" 
Cast Out 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



The Rulers 
not Shep- 
herds, nor 
Harvesters 



Maltreatment 
of Prophets 



Blind Guides 



the privileged ones in Israel, from whom more than 
self-righteousness was due, should be cast into the 
outer darkness. 

The religious authorities were to Jesus no shepherds 
of the people. Repeatedly he had compassion on the 
multitudes as sheep having no shepherd. So it was 
before sending forth the twelve. The multitudes "were 
distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shep- 
herd" (Matt. 9: 36). Among them he saw a plenteous 
harvest, but few laborers. The Lord of the harvest 
should be entreated to thrust forth laborers into his 
harvest. The twelve were to go two by two "to the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 10: 6). So 
it was before feeding the five thousand ; he had compas- 
sion on the multitudes, because they were as sheep not 
having a shepherd; and he welcomed them, and spoke 
to them of the Kingdom of God, and healed them. To 
the Canaanitish woman crying after them in the borders 
of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus said at first that he himself 
was "not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel" (Matt. 15: 24). 

On sending forth the twelve on their mission, Jesus 
warned them to beware of men who should deliver them 
up to councils and scourge them in their synagogues. 
Likewise the hypocrites were warned to their faces 
against killing, crucifying, scourging, and persecuting 
prophets and wise men. And there was the lament 
over Jerusalem. 

When the disciples reported that the Pharisees were 
caused to stumble at his teaching concerning inward 
cleansing, he said that every plant not planted by his 
heavenly Father should be rooted up. "Let them alone : 
they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the 
blind, both shall fall into a pit" (Matt. 15: 14). 

94 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

Having just refused the demand of the Pharisees and The Leaven 
the Sadducees for a sign, he charged his disciples to °/.*^® ^^~ 
take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees pouticai 
and the Sadducees and of Herod. At first they thought Rulers 
he was rebuking them for having forgotten to take 
bread, but he made them understand that he spoke not 
of the leaven of bread, but of their teaching. Later 
he defined the leaven of the Pharisees as hypocrisy. 

Jesus rejected the hint of legalism among his disci- LegaUsm 
pies. Peter wanted to count the number of times that ®i®<^*«d 
a sinning brother might be forgiven. "Until seven 
times ?'^ Jesus replied that seven times was a measure 
of forgiveness for a sinning, repentant brother for 
only one day. Then, transcending the numerical view- 
point, he added, "Until seventy times seven." Then 
he spoke the parable of the king reckoning with his 
servants, showing that man's offenses against man are 
small, and should be forgiven from the heart, in order 
that forgiveness for great offenses against the heavenly 
Father may be received. 

When Jesus pronounced woe upon the Pharisees, as Woe Upon 
concealed tombs because of their outer cleansing and ^ Lawyers 
inner extortion and wickedness, the lawyers pres- 
ent felt themselves reproached also. Jesus then pro- 
nounced woe upon the lawyers because first, they put 
grievous burdens on men without assisting in carrying 
them; second, they built the tombs of the prophets 
whom their fathers killed, thereby witnessing and con- 
senting to such deeds; and third, they took away the 
key of knowledge, not entering themselves and hinder- 
ing those that were entering. The class afflicted by 
the lawyers' reading of the law Jesus doubtless espe- 
cially had in mind in his invitation to those that "labor 
and are heavy laden." 

95 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



The Woes of 
the Hypocrites 



Teachings 
Against the 
Rulers in 
Parables 



Jesus used the term "hypocrites" of the two classes, 
the Pharisees and the scribes, who were the same as 
the lawyers. After putting the Sadducees to silence in 
his answer to their question about the resurrection, 
and also the Pharisees with his question about the 
Christ as the son of David, Jesus warned both the mul- 
titudes and his disciples against the "hypocrites." Their 
religion was only a show; they devour widows' houses 
while for a pretence making long prayers; their words 
must be obeyed, since they sit on Moses' seat, but their 
deeds must not be imitated; they impose, but do not 
lift, burdens; they love to be called of men "Rabbi"; 
they shut the Kingdom of heaven against men; they 
victimize their proselytes; they are blind fools and 
guides to distinguish between the Temple and its gold, 
the altar and its gift, in the oath ; they tithe mint, anise, 
and cummin, and leave undone justice, mercy, and 
faith, thus straining out the gnat and swallowing the 
camel; they cleanse the outside of cups and platters, 
but themselves within are full of extortion and excess ; 
they are "whited sepulchres," beautiful without and 
unclean within; they build the sepulchres of the 
prophets slain by their fathers — self-righteously in each 
case. And then, with a final crack of the whip of 
violent denunciation: "Ye serpents, ye offspring of 
vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell?" 
(Matt. 23: 33). 

Such warnings were open and direct. Jesus also 
used the method of parable in attacking the religious 
leaders. To certain ones that trusted in themselves 
that they were righteous and set all others at naught, 
he spoke the parable of the Pharisee and the publican 
praying in the Temple. The barren fig tree, having the 
leaves of promise but no fruit, he cursed as typical of 

96 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 



the showy but empty religion of the leaders. The 
parable of the man with the two sons sent to work in 
his vineyard showed them that the publicans and har- 
lots precede them in the Kingdom. The parable of the 
householder and the wicked husbandmen taught them 
that the Kingdom should be taken away from them and 
given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 
The parable of the marriage feast taught them that 
many are called but few are chosen. 

Hearing these parables, the chief priests, scribes, 
and Pharisees perceived he was speaking of them. Only 
their fear of the multitudes, who took Jesus for a 
prophet, restrained them from laying hold on him then 
and there. For the people repeatedly noticed that he 
taught as one having authority, speaking his own in- 
dependent mind, not as the scribes, quoting the opinions 
of others. 

Though fearing to lay hands on him, the leaders 
dogged his steps. The Hosanna song of the multitude 
of the disciples at the humble triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem they could not abide. Some of the Pharisees 
from the multitude said unto him, "Master, rebuke thy 
disciples" (Luke 19: 39). They even complained to 
him when some of the children in the Temple caught 
up and continued the same song: "Hearest thou what 
these are saying?" (Matt. 21: 16). He gave them no 
comfort by denying that he was the "King of Israel" 
in the sense the palm-waving singers meant it. He 
stopped their objections by reference to the sympathy 
of the stones and the perfect praise of the children. 

Not that all the Pharisees were opposed to him or he 
to them. Nicodemus was one of the rulers of the Jews. 
It was certain Pharisees who once warned him to 
escape the domain of Herod who was seeking his life. 

97 



Safety for 
Jesus in 
the Presence 
of the 
Multitudes 



Objections 
to the 
Hosanna 
Song 



Good Pharisees 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Base 

Strategy and 
Violence 



Secret of the 
HostUity 
to Jesus 



To one of the scribes, answering discreetly, he said: 
"Thou art not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark 
12 : 34) . Many even of the rulers believed on him, but 
confessed it not, fearing excommunication from the 
synagogue by the Pharisees, still loving the glory from 
men more than the glory from God. To the separatist 
Pharisees it seemed a thing incredible that any of their 
sect or of the rulers should believe on him. 

The religious authorities, having had their open 
criticisms parried successfully, having failed to entrap 
him in his talk, being unable to answer his questions 
in intellectual combat, having been openly excoriated, 
and suffering from the sting of his parables — the more 
effective because veiled — finally resorted to base 
strategy and physical violence. Even so, he might 
easily have escaped from their hands, as indeed he had 
done many times before, had he not recognized that 
his hour was now come. They were Pharisees till the 
end, being murderers at heart and in fact, but not on 
a feast-day, fearing the people, nor on the Sabbath, nor 
would they enter Pilate's palace, fearing defilement for 
the passover. 

What was the secret of the hostility of the Pharisees 
to Jesus? It was self-preservation. At a council held 
by the chief priests and the Pharisees the question was : 
"What do we? for this man doeth many signs. If 
we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him; 
and the Romans will come and take away both our 
place and our nation" (John 11 : 47-50). It was at this 
council that the high priest himself, Caiaphas, who was 
later to be his judge, deliberately suggested death as 
the answer to their question. This counsel was ac- 
cepted. At the triumphal entry the Pharisees said 
among themselves: "Behold how ye prevail nothing; 

98 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 

lo, the world is gone after him" (John 12: 19). It 
was evident to Pilate that through envy the chief priests 
had delivered him up. 

In studying the relation of Jesus to the religious Final Events 
authorities, it is not necessary to trace in detail how 
they accomplished their purpose through the betrayal 
by Judas; the arrest without resistance; the farcical 
trial before Annas, Caiaphas, and the Council; the 
double set of religious and political charges — falsities 
and misunderstanding; the Council's acting as his ac- 
cusers before Pilate; stirring up the multitude to de- 
mand the release of the robber Barabbas, not Christ; 
their failure to secure from Pilate the superscription 
desired; theif mockery of him on the cross; his burial 
by two of their rulers, his secret disciples; and their 
request of Pilate for a guard for the sepulchre. The 
request for the guard, their last act concerning their 
victim, carries tacit admission that the crucifixion was 
wrong : if his disciples should steal him away and say : 
"He is risen from the dead," "the last error will be 
worst than the first" (Matt. 27: 64). Under all these 
unparalleled circumstances Jesus bore himself with the 
submission of strength before those who so disgrace- 
fully sat on Moses' seat. 

Thus we have briefly traced the long story of the Summary 
relations of Jesus to the religious authorities of his day. 
It was one of the two or three major factors in his 
public life. We have seen how the religious life of 
his day shaped his early years; how he sought to 
avoid giving offense to the religious authorities; how 
they criticised his conduct and teaching and his self- 
defense; how he escaped their intellectual traps; how 
in turn they were caught in the toils of his questions; 
how he openly denounced them sternly, and spoke many 

99 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



His Social 
Attitude 
Toward 
Religion 



parables concerning them; and how finally through 
baseness, violence, and the miscarriage of justice, they 
overcame him, he surrendering himself. 

We undertook this study of the social attitude of 
Jesus toward the most important interest of human life 
as officially organized in his day with a view to apply- 
ing it, though briefly, to the social attitude of his fol- 
lowers today toward organized religion. As the scribes 
and Pharisees regarded themselves as sons of Abra- 
ham, so the churches today regard themselves as Chris- 
tian. What would Jesus say to the churches? And 
what to us ? 

His attitude has nothing in it of religious stand-pat- 
ness or of religious peace at any price. His was a 
bold though gentle spirit, aroused to energetic attack 
by the formal, external, ceremonial, and legal religion 
of his day. He conserved essentials, he relegated 
non-essentials, he advanced to a position of freedom 
and individual initiative in religion. This he did under 
the sense of constant and immediate inspiration from 
the Father above. He respected the law and its offices, 
though transcending it. He received criticism and re- 
joiced in meeting it. He recognized verbal nets spread 
to entangle him and was able to avoid them. He met 
question with successful counter-question. He warned 
against the leaven of his enemies privately and de- 
nounced them publicly. He did not hesitate to alienate 
easy friends and to make enemies of critics by witness- 
ing to the truth. He made no compromise with evil 
and played no trick on his soul. He foresaw death as 
the price of his position, cheerfully paid the price, con- 
sidered he had overcome the world, and comforted his 
friends the while. Such was his social attitude to- 
ward religion. To his followers he says: "Have salt 

100 



JESUS AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES 



What He 
Saw in the 
Name of 



in yourselves" (Mark 9: 50), "Follow me" (John 12: 
26), "As the Father hath sent me, so send I you" 
(John 20: 21). 

In the synagogues, the Temple, and among the reli- 
gious rulers of his day he saw men making long 
prayers and devouring widows' houses, observing the R^i^on 
Sabbath but not relieving the sick and needy, praying 
before men but not before God, meeting purchasers 
but not God in the Temple, tithing vegetables but neg- 
lecting justice and mercy, adulterers avoiding cere- 
monial defilements, extortioners washing the outside 
of cups, doctors of the law dishonoring its spirit and 
letter, ostentatious alms-givers and fasters — a religion 
of leaves without fruit. "Howbeit, when the Son of 
Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" That 
was his question of the future. By "faith" he meant 
life in vital touch with the heavenly Father. "Why call 
ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?" 
(Luke 6: 46). 

What would Jesus say to us and to the churches? 
It is a large question and we cannot be sure, but my 
impression is that in his real presence we should first 
spiritualize and then socialize our lives, and our 
churches would first spiritualize their vision and then 
socialize their programs. 



Spirituality 
and Sociality 



lOI 



STUDY X 



Principles, not 
Programs 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

Social reform according to Jesus derives from prin- 
ciples, not expedients or programs. Though Jesus no- 
where enumerates these, we may reduce them to nine. 
They are principles, that is, unaffected by the social 
conditions to which they apply ; they are not an in- 
elastic social constitution. They are the mustard seed 
growing into the greatest of man's sheltering religions ; 
they are the leaven leavening the whole lump of human 
society. Jesus nowhere gives a systematic statement 
of them; he simply lives them and when the occasion 
demands, he voices them. 
Nine Principles These principles are: (i) love to God and man; (2) 
the fatherhood of God; (3) the brotherhood of man; 
(4) the infinite worth of the individual; (5) as a con- 
sequence of all the preceding, full recognition of women 
and children; (6) an ideal of divine perfection; (7) 
life as achievement for God; (8) the influence of per- 
sonality; and (9) progress by growth. 

A few words concerning each of these. When the 
scribe asked Jesus one of the much-debated questions 
among the students of the law, namely. Which is the 
greatest of all the commandments? Jesus replied, pur- 
posely using the language of the Old Testament : "Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy strength" (Mark 12: 30). But, being unwill- 
ing to separate in either thought or fact the love of 
God from the love of man, Jesus went on to add : "The 
102 



Love to God 
and Man 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" 
(Mark 12: 31), thus bringing together what Deuter- 
onomy and Leviticus separate, and forever uniting in 
Christianity the claims of religion and morality. Against 
the Jews he lodged the charge : "But I know you, that 
ye have not the love of God in yourselves" (John 5: 
42). No other commandment is greater than these 
inseparable two. The scribes and Pharisees were hypo- 
crites because they rightly tithed mint, anise, and cum- 
min for God, but wrongly left undone justice and 
mercy for man — "the weightier matters of the law" 
(Matt. 23: 23). They were hypocrites, "making void 
the word of God" (Mark 7: 13), because they gave to 
the Temple money with which they should have sup- 
ported their parents. The Pharisees, objecting to the 
disciples' plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath 
day, did not know the meaning of Hosea's words put 
in the mouth of Jehovah: "I desire mercy and not 
sacrifice" (Matt. 12: 7). The ethical service of man 
is better than the ceremonial service of God. The gift 
is not to be offered before the altar of God until one's 
offended brother is reconciled. The parable of the Good 
Samaritan seems to teach that the neighbor we are to 
love as ourselves is any one in need whom we can 
benefit. So far from hating any human being, even 
our enemies are to be the objects of love and prayer. 
The Golden Rule is not limited in its statement to race 
or place. Such love for God and man will inevitably 
effect social as well as individual transformation. 

"We love because he first loved us," says John (I The Father- 
John 4: 19). The parable of the Unforgiving Servant i»ood of God 
teaches that, in view of God's forgiveness to man, it 
is man's simple duty, and not a matter of magnanimity, 
to forgive one's brother. Supporting the love of man 
103 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

to man is the love of God to man, who makes his sun 
shine and sends the rain on the evil and the good. 
From the time Jesus as a lad of twelve spoke of God in 
the Temple till he commended his spirit to Him on 
the cross as a young man of nearly thirty-three, God 
was regarded as Father. In the five recorded prayers 
of Jesus, God is addressed only as Father. God is 
referred to once as "the Great King" (Matt. 5: 35), 
and once as "the Lord of the harvest" (Luke 10: 2). 
The very nature of God is fatherliness, giving good 
things to them that ask him, even the Holy Spirit. 
If men, who are evil, give good gifts unto their chil- 
dren, Jesus' argument was, how much more shall the 
heavenly Father do so? The parable of the Prodigal 
Son teaches that the Father watches and longs for the 
wandering boy's return and finally welcomes him with 
kisses, raiment, and merry-making. Jesus regarded 
God as the Father not because He is the Creator of 
all, but because He loves all, as John caught from him 
the idea that "God is love." The word "Father" occurs 
forty-five times in Matthew, five in Mark, seventeen in 
Luke, and ninety in John. The Father seeks worshipers 
in spirit and in truth. Jesus taught his disciples to 
pray the social prayer beginning "Our Father," and he 
sent them the message: "I ascend unto my Father and 
your Father" (John 20: 17). The earthly kingdom was 
that of the Father. It is difficult to single out the 
primary principle in the thinking of Jesus; perhaps we 
should not be far wrong in making it the universal 
Fatherhood of God. Jesus took the idea of God as the 
Father of Israel or of some individual Israelite and 
widened it into the absolute Father, "Our Father," 
the Father of all men everywhere. It is a socializing 
conception. 

104 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

There are three senses of the term brotherhood, first, The Brother- 
a family relation; second, a spiritual relation; third, lioodofMan 
a natural universal human relationship. Of these three 
the first is due to heredity, the second to the perform- 
ance of the Father's will, the third to the all-Father- 
hood of God. Of these the first is the closest physically, 
the second is the most intimate, and the third is the 
widest. Jesus had brothers (or relatives) in the 
Nazareth home, spiritual brothers in the circle of his 
disciples, and human brothers among all the sons of 
men — he "the Son of man." Jesus subordinates the 
family to the spiritual relationship ("Call no man your 
father on the earth, one is your Father, even he who 
is in heaven," Matt. 23: 9; "Whosoever shall do the 
will of my Father in heaven the same is my brother and 
sister, and mother," Matt. 12: 50), though illustrating 
and emphasizing filial duties, and presupposes as well 
as clearly teaches the universal brotherhood of man. 
This third meaning of the term is the one with social 
dynamic in it. We are to love not merely our brothers 
in the flesh, as even "the Gentiles" do ; not merely our 
brothers in the spirit, as even the Jews were ready to 
love their Jewish "neighbors," not recognizing the 
despised half-Jewish Samaritans as neighbors to be 
loved; but our brothers in nature as fellow human 
beings. Whosoever is angry with such a "brother" is 
in danger of the judgment; whosoever uses to such a 
"brother" the contemptuous term Raca is in danger of 
the council; whosoever has offended such a "brother" 
must first placate him before offering a gift at the 
altar; the mote in such a "brother's" eye is not to be 
noticed when there is a beam in one's own eye, but 
first the beam is to be cast out of one's own eye before 
one can see clearly to cast the mote out of one's 
105 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

"brother's" eye. The same teaching on the hill that 
presents God as the Father of all mankind (Matt. 5: 
45), not merely the Father of the Jews, or even of 
the members of the Kingdom, presents our fellow 
human being as our brother, whom we are to treat 
in the ways indicated, "that ye may be sons of your 
Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5 : 45). The "brother" 
is to be forgiven not formally seven times, but, in- 
definitely, seventy times seven. The Father in anger 
will punish those who do not from their hearts forgive 
every one his "brother" (Matt. 18: 34, 35). That the 
term "brother" is here used universally and not merely 
with reference to the Christian brotherhood is clear 
from the social safe-guard of the "Lord's prayer": 
"For if ye forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly 
Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men 
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your 
trespasses" (Matt. 6: 14, 15). The parable of the Good 
Samaritan widens the narrowly construed Jewish term 
"neighbor" to mean "brother-man." The parable of the 
Lost Son shows that the publicans and sinners, typi- 
fied by the younger brother, are brothers really of the 
scribes and Pharisees, typified by the elder brother, the 
father, typifying God himself, saying to the elder 
brother : "This thy brother was dead and is alive again ; 
and was lost and is found" (Luke 15: 32). In the 
picture of the Last Judgment drawn by Jesus the sheep 
are separated from the goats by deeds of mercy to "one 
of the least of these my brethren" (Matt. 25: 40). In 
saying this Jesus made himself one with all, the Brother 
of man; it is implied also in the title by which he most 
frequently designates himself, "the Son of man"; im- 
plied also in his being the Son of Mary, David, Abra- 
ham, and Adam (Luke 3: 38). The real sensing of 
106 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

such a principle of brotherhood means release of tre- 
mendous social motive, whereby men may be won to 
doing the will of God and loving one another, in con- 
sequence of which they become members of the new 
spiritual brotherhood in Christ and subjects of the 
Kingdom of God. The spiritual brotherhood is co- 
extensive with the Kingdom of Heaven already dis- 
cussed. 

The fourth principle of Jesus germinal of social re- infinite 
form is the infinite worth of the individual soul. A ^°f*^°',^® 
man is not profited by gaining the whole world and soul 
losing his own soul. There is no suitable exchange for 
the soul. We are not to fear those who can destroy 
the body but Him who can destroy both body and soul 
in hell. The Rich Fool in the parable made the mis- 
take of providing for his body, but not for his soul. 
By its nature the soul is eternal and one of two 
destinies awaits it (Matt. 25: 46). In his conduct, in 
the face of the worth of each individual soul, Jesus 
took little account of social distinctions, accepting an 
invitation to dine with Simon, the Pharisee, and receiv- 
ing there at the same time the worshiping woman who 
was a sinner. The striking argument for the im- 
mortality of the soul, upon which its infinite worth 
depends, as stated by Jesus, is recalled by all three of 
the synoptic writers: "He is not the God of the dead, 
but of the living" (Mark 12: 27). Man is better than 
a sheep ! The Pharisees regarded the multitude, not 
knowing the law, as accursed, but Jesus, individuaUzing 
the multitude, warned his disciples to call no brother 
Raca. He teaches that God is unwilling that even one 
soul should be lost in the three parables of the Lost 
Sheep, the Lost Piece of Money, and the Lost Son. 
The great institution of the Sabbath was made for man, 
107 



of Woman 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

not man for the Sabbath. This principle of the worth 
of the individual has a leveling, a democratic influ- 
ence in society, and tends to make each one in a true 
sense his brother's keeper. 
^/^^^*^°° '^^^ recognition of women and children is a kind 

of corollary of the principles of brotherhood and in- 
dividuality. "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, 
and Lazarus" (John ii: 5). Evidently Jesus treated 
the sisters as in no way inferior to the brother. He 
especially enjoyed conversing with Mary. Jesus gave 
his profoundest thought about God to the Samaritan 
woman, even his speaking with whom caused his disci- 
plies to marvel, though they said nothing. He received 
sustenance from a company of ministering women. He 
performed a work of mercy for a Syrophoenician woman. 
Until the time of the wedding in Cana his mother 
Mary had evidently freely directed his life, which 
henceforth she could not do. His readiness to help 
sinful women laid him open to misunderstanding (Luke 
7: 39). He shielded the woman that was a sinner from 
her accusers and himself would not condemn her. He 
elevated the position of the wife with the teaching that 
"the twain shall be one flesh" (Matt. 19: 5) and that 
fornication alone is a ground for divorce. How lofty 
his position was in contrast with contemporary prac- 
tice is voiced in the surprised comment of the disciples : 
*Tf the case of the man is so with his wife, it is not 
expedient to marry" (Matt. 19: 10). The great Hillel 
allowed divorce if the wife spoiled the husband's din- 
ner. Jesus forgave the penitent sinner, "for she loved 
much" (Luke 7: 47). He justified the grateful Mary 
in anointing him with costly nard against the day of 
his burial, showing his comprehension of the feminine 
soul. In the house of Simon the leper he associated 
108 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

forever the gracious deed of one woman with the Gos- 
pel itself. He had compassion on the bereaved widow 
of Nain. He noted and commended the generosity of 
the poor widow who gave her two mites. He openly 
assured the woman afflicted with the issue of blood, 
who had been healed by secretly touching his garment 
in the crush, that her faith had made her whole. So 
far as we can detect, Jesus makes no discrimination 
whatsoever against women as a class, but accords them 
exactly the same recognition given to men, understand- 
ing their hearts intuitively, through a feminine quality 
in his own soul. 

Paul wrote: ''There can be no male and female; Feminine Traits 
for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3: 28). °^J®s"s 
The Apocryphal Gospel of the Egyptians records that 
on "being asked by Salome when his kingdom should 
come, he is reported to have answered, 'when the two 
shall be one, and the male with the female, neither male 
nor female.' " The feminine quality in the soul of 
Jesus is shown by the womanly graces of his character 
and certain womanly virtues in his teaching, such as, 
warning against the lustful eye; his modest unwilling- 
ness to shame the sinful woman by looking at her; 
the strength of his emotions, to be considered later; 
his tenderness, forbearance, patience, long-suffering, 
his undying loyalty to his own, his receptiveness to ex- 
pressions of affection, his endurance, his submissive- 
ness, his quick and reliable moral judgments, his in- 
tuitions of truth, his subjection of legality to the de- 
mands of his soul, the reference to the mother's joy 
after travail that a man is born into the world (John 
16: 21), and his fondness for children. These all show 
the womanliness of the soul of Jesus, something quite 
other than effeminacy. 

109 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



Responsive- 
ness of 
Woman to 
Jesus 



Jesus and 
Children 



Jesus Blessed 
Children 



These feminine traits, coupled with no failure in 
manhood, help us to understand the responsiveness to 
him of women then, and through the centuries to the 
present day. A list of the names of women figuring 
in the gospel stories written by men is significant: 
Mary, the mother of Jesus ; Mary, the wife of Cleopas ; 
Mary, the sister of Lazarus ; Mary of Magdala ; Martha 
of Bethany; Salome, the mother of James and John; 
to which may be added many unnamed women, his 
"sisters," the sinner who anointed him, the company of 
ministering women, the woman who called out bless- 
ings on his mother from the crowd, and the many 
for whom he did works of mercy. He was born of 
woman, nurtured by woman, followed by woman, minis- 
tered to by woman, anointed by woman, bewailed by 
woman on the way to the cross, attended by woman 
at the crucifixion, sought by woman at the sepulchre, 
attested by woman at the resurrection, and witnessed 
by woman at the ascension. Yet he married no woman, 
chose no woman as a disciple, and claimed as his sister 
and mother any one who did the will of the heavenly 
Father. 

Jesus himself was an infant, a child, a young man. 
We have the beautiful picture of his infancy with 
angels' singing, his mother's tender care, the gifts 
of the wise men, and the gladness of all who saw him. 
We have the graphic and naturalistic picture of his 
childhood as he grew, became strong, became wiser, 
with the favor of God resting on him. We have the 
Temple scene in his youth, showing him eager to learn, 
already knowing much, and thinking of God as his 
Father. 

As a man Jesus blessed little children. It made such 
an impression on his followers to see him turn aside 
no 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 



from his regular work of healing and teaching to re- 
ceive little children in his arms from their mothers and 
bless them, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record 
the incident. He saw in their simplicity, love, depend- 
ence, and trustfulness characteristics of his Kingdom. 
He thanked his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, 
for hiding the truths of the Kingdom from the wise 
and understanding and revealing them unto babes. By 
his power he fed the children as well as the women 
in the company of five thousand men. 

Jesus healed little children, among whom were the Jesus Healed 
demoniac boy, the nobleman's son, the daughter of C^^^®*^ 
Jairus, the daughter of the Canaanitish woman, and 
the servant of the centurion. In addressing the daugh- 
ter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, he used a 
diminutive form of the Aramaic word for lamb, 
"Talitha," expressive of the appeal of children to him, 
as though he had said in our language, "Lambkin, 
arise." 

Jesus understood the ways of little children. He Jesus 
had observed them playing wedding and funeral in the 
market-place (Luke 7: 32). He makes one father who 
does not want to rise and serve a friend in need give 
as excuse: "my children are with me in bed" (Luke 
11: 7). And he knew about parents, though evil, 
giving good gifts to their children. What a father to 
Jesus Joseph must have been that Jesus adopted the 
term for God ! 

Jesus gave a great many teachings about little chil- 
dren, though so few of his words have come down to 
us. In fact, he used a little child as an object-lesson 
for the grown disciples, setting him in their midst, and 
taking him in his arms, and saying emphatically to 
them: "Except ye turn, and become as little children, 
III 



Observed 
Children 



Teachings 

About 

Children 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little 
child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child 
in my name receiveth me (and whosoever receiveth 
me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. Mark 9: 
37). Whoso shall cause one of these little ones that 
believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that 
a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and 
that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. ... 
See that ye despise not one of these little ones; for 
I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always 
behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. . . . 
It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that 
one of these little ones should perish" (Matt. 18: 3-6, 
10, 14). Some of these teachings about offending and 
despising little ones apply to those young in faith as 
well as to children. 
Children Is it not small wonder that the mothers wanted to 

bring their children to Jesus, that they were glad to 
come, and that they praised him in song after the 
second cleansing of the Temple, catching up the re- 
frain they had heard from their elders on Palm Sunday 
and saying "Hosanna to the son of David"? (Matt. 
21: 15). To the complaining scribes and chief priests 
Jesus justified the song of the children, quoting from 
their Scriptures: "Yea: did ye never read, Out of the 
mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected 
praise?" (Matt. 21: 16). He told the women of Jeru- 
salem who were lamenting him: "weep not for me, but 
weep for yourselves, and for your children" (Luke 
23: 28). One of his last injunctions to Peter was, 
"Feed my lambs" (John 21 : 15). 
At times Jesus applied the term children to adults, 
112 



Praised Him 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

in some cases with very tender significance. To his Adults CaUed 
disciples at the last supper he says, "Little children, ChUdren 
yet a little while I am with you" (John 13: 33) — a 
phrase taken up by John in his epistles several times, 
as in, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" 
(I John 5: 21). The risen Jesus addresses his disciples 
by the sea of Galilee, "Children, have ye aught to eat?" 
(John 21: 5). He laments over Jerusalem: "How oft 
would I have gathered thy children together!" (Luke 
13: 34). He anticipated the days when the enemies 
of Jerusalem should dash her to the ground, "and thy 
children within thee" (Luke 19: 44). The peace- 
makers he thought of as the children of God. He 
likened the children of the Kingdom to good seed, and 
enjoined upon such the love of enemies "that ye may be 
the children of your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5: 45). 

It was characteristic of the social method of Jesus 
to give a new conscience and attitude toward children, 
but not to give regulations for rearing them, as did 
Plato. In view of the recognition he accorded women 
and children in both his life and his teaching, it is 
only natural that wherever Christianity spreads, there 
women and children come finally into their own. 

The sixth of the principles of Jesus conducive to The ideal 
social reform is the ideal of divine perfection. "Ye ofi>ivme 
therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is 
perfect" (Matt. 5: 48). The future indicative has the 
efifect of an imperative. The statement comes out at 
the end of one section of the Sermon on the Mount. 
It summarizes an argument. The preceding thought 
makes clear what is meant by this counsel of perfection. 
The Father in heaven is loving and serving all men, 
making his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and 
sending rain on the just and the unjust. Even so men 
113 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

are to be the sons of their Father who is in heaven, 
by loving their enemies and praying for their perse- 
cutors. The peacemakers are blessed, for they shall 
be called sons of God. The pure in heart are blessed, 
for they shall see God. The Kingdom of God and His 
righteousness are to be sought first, after which ma- 
terial benefits will follow (Matt. 6: 33). As God gives 
light to all by making his sun to rise, so are the disci- 
ples "the light of the world" (Matt. 5: 14). The per- 
fection of man consists in his godlikeness in loving and 
serving both the evil and the good. Such individual 
worth produces social well-being. 
Life Is Seventh, human life is regarded by Jesus as achieve- 

Achievement ment for God. The agents of God require the soul 

for God ,, _,.,_,, ,,., r ,. ,r 

of the Rich Fool, who laid up treasure for himself 
without being rich toward God. The giving and lend- 
ing life, not the hoarding and withholding life, Jesus 
urges (Matt. 5: 42). Talents are given by God for 
use, and their neglect receives severest condemnation: 
"Thou wicked ^nd slothful servant. . . . Take ye 
away therefore the talent from him. . . . Cast ye out 
the unprofitable servant" (Matt. 25: 26, 28, 30). The 
condemnation of Dives was, not that he had wealth, but 
that he did not share it. The servant who abuses his 
position, eating and drinking, and beating his fellow- 
servants, shall be severely scourged and have his por- 
tion appointed with the hypocrites. Servants good and 
faithful in that which is another's are given rulership 
over many things of their own and enter into the joy 
of their Lord. When life is grasped as stewardship, 
there is developed at once social motive and purpose. 
The deepest reason perhaps that Jesus ever gave for 
healing on the Sabbath was: "My Father worketh 
hitherto and I work" (John 5: 17). 

114 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

Eighth, Jesus relied on the influence of personality influence of 
in the spread of the Kingdom. Two of John's disci- Personality 
pies asked him, after John's testimony concerning him, 
where he abode, and he bade them come and see. These 
two were Andrew and probably John. The first thing 
Andrew did after being with Jesus one day was to find 
his brother Simon and bring him to Jesus, whom 
Andrew already acknowledged to be the Messiah. 
Jesus attached Simon to himself by changing his name 
to Cephas, or Peter. The next day Jesus called Philip 
to follow him, and Philip, being convinced that Jesus 
was the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, 
found Nathanael. When Nathanael hesitated because 
Jesus came from Nazareth, Philip used effectively the 
earlier words of Jesus: "Come and see" (John i: 46). 
Jesus attached Nathanael unto himself by recognizing 
his guileless character and through having noted him 
under the fig tree. The faith of the early disciples was 
deepened after the sign at the wedding feast in Cana. 
Jesus conversed by night, perhaps in the open on the 
Mount of Olives, with Nicodemus, the ruler of the 
Jews, who was so impressed that later he objected when 
the chief priests and Pharisees would condemn Jesus 
unheard and do contrary to their law, and after the 
crucifixion he brought a hundred pounds of myrrh and 
aloes for the body. Jesus conversed with the woman 
of Samaria and she became an evangelist to the men 
of her city. Standing by the sea of Galilee, he saw two 
brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee, mending 
their nets in the boat; he called them; and they left 
the boat and their father with the hired servants, and 
followed him. Jesus saw a tax-collector, a publican, 
named Levi, the son of Alphseus, called Matthew, sit- 
ting at the place of toll and called him, saying: "Fol- 
115 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

low me," and Matthew arose, forsook all, and followed 
him. After continuing all night in prayer to God, Jesus 
called his disciples unto him, chose and appointed 
twelve from among them, whom he named apostles, 
that they might be with him and that he might send 
them forth. Without the aid of his disciples who were 
not yet converted to the idea of a spiritual kingdom, he 
sent the multitudes away who would take him by force 
and make him king, the crowd not being responsive to 
his highest appeals, but following him for the loaves 
and fish. Likewise, after feeding the four thousand, 
he sent them away. After healing the blind man of 
Bethsaida, he sent him home with the injunction not 
to enter into the village, fearing a following who looked 
for outward signs. He elicited from his disciples 
through Peter the confession that he was the Christ 
and then charged them that they should tell no man, 
lest his following grow by hearsay evidence. Jesus 
took with him Peter, James, and John and brought them 
up with him in the high mount of Transfiguration. A 
certain scribe who would follow him anywhere he 
warned of the difficulty of following one who had 
not where to lay his head. To a really quickened and 
sensitive soul who would follow him after first burying 
his father Jesus said, "Leave the dead [spiritually] 
to bury their own dead ; but go thou and publish abroad 
the kingdom of God" (Luke 9: 60). To another who 
would follow after bidding farewell to his relatives, 
Jesus said ; "No man, having put his hand to the plough, 
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 
9: 62). Not superficial, but binding, personal attach- 
ment would he have. He appointed seventy others, and 
sent them two by two before his face into every city 
and place, whither he himself was about to come. He 
116 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

taught that men are spared from calamities, such as 
overcame the Galilaean martyrs and the eighteen upon 
whom the Tower in Siloam fell, in order that they may 
repent and bear fruit. Jesus, loving the rich and good 
young ruler, pointed out to him the one thing lacking 
to his being perfect. Jesus found the poor blind man 
excommunicated by the Pharisees, and established his 
belief in the Son of God. The cursing of the barren 
fig tree is a parable of the withering away of Pharisaic 
and all fruitlessness. The visit of the Greeks caused 
trouble to the soul of Jesus at the prospect of the 
crucifixion, which was relieved, however, by the vision 
of all men being thereby drawn unto him. From the 
multitude who rejected the idea that the Son of Man 
must be lifted up, Jesus departed and hid himself, as 
from the multitude who would make him king, being 
reminded thereby of his temptation. In the same way 
Jesus did not commit himself to those who believed 
on him at the feast of the passover because of the signs 
which he did, and which he performed not to win fol- 
lowers, but in compassion. Selected individuals he care- 
fully instructed that he was a suffering and spiritual 
Messiah; crowds who rejected these ideas, holding that 
the Christ abides forever as a temporal ruler, and be- 
lieving him to be such because of his works of mercy, 
he sent away, escaped from, and refused to trust. Two 
most striking things in conformity with his refusal to 
cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple are 
first, he never worked a miracle to win a follower, and 
second, he never allowed the beneficiary of a miracle 
to follow him, though he received tokens of gratitude 
from such. *'Go thy way," he would say, as to the 
accused woman whom he did not condemn, the grateful 
one of the ten cleansed lepers, and blind Bartimaeus. 
"7 



Growth 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

The risen Christ continues to emphasize the same prin- 
ciple of the spread of influence by personal contact, 
saying to the disciples : "As the Father hath sent me, 
even so send I you" (John 20: 21). The Great Com- 
mission lays the obligation on disciples to make disci- 
ples, and the last recorded sentence of the ascending 
Lord contains the words: "Ye shall be my witnesses" 
(Acts 1 : 8). Thus the social Kingdom comes through 
the influence of individual contact. 
Progress by The ninth and last of Jesus' principles of social re- 

form is progress by growth. "First the blade, then the 
ear, then the full corn in the ear" (Mark 4: 28) is his 
own statement of the principle. He likens the Kingdom 
to seed cast upon the earth, springing up and grow- 
ing one knows not how; he likens the word of the 
Kingdom to the seed of the sower, some of which 
falls on good ground, grows up, increases, and 
brings forth some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a 
hundredfold. Again he likens the Kingdom to wheat 
and tares growing together until the harvest; and 
again to the small mustard seed growing up and becom- 
ing greater than all the herbs ; and still again to leaven 
hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. 
The end should not come until the Gospel of the King- 
dom had been preached in the whole world for a testi- 
mony unto all the nations. The end was measured 
not by days and years, but by the completion of the 
process of growth. The thinking of Jesus on this point 
is by analogy from nature. The significance of this 
principle is that the transformation of human society 
into the Kingdom of God is a developmental process, 
not coming by observation. 

Such are the nine social principles of Jesus, to the 
effectiveness of which in changing the complexion of 
118 



JESUS AND SOCIAL REFORM 

human society the course of succeeding human history, 
dating itself from the birth of Jesus, is itself witness. 
They show Jesus as a reformer, not by a program, 
which is local, but by the social spirit, which is uni- 
versal. 



119 



STUDY XI 



JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

Its Importance The Kingdom of Heaven was one of the constant 
and central themes of the teaching of Jesus. He began 
his ministry with the message of repentance, "for the 
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," as did John the Bap- 
tist, but Jesus put a less violent meaning into the term 
than did John; and the evening before his death he 
spoke of drinking the wine new in the Kingdom of 
God. During the intervening interval of almost three 
years, the term was frequently on his lips, it being re- 
corded forty-eight times by Matthew, thirteen times 
by Mark, and thirty-four times by Luke. In John the 
synonymous term, "eternal life," is used, except in the 
conversations with Nicodemus and Pilate. The Twelve 
and the Seventy are sent out to announce the same 
message of John and of Jesus, that the Kingdom is 
at hand. One of the preaching tours of Jesus was 
devoted to "the gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 9: 
35). John was the dividing line between "the law and 
the prophets" and "the gospel of the kingdom of God" 
(Luke 16: 16). Many of the parables are S5'mbols 
of the Kingdom. And the disciples are taught to pray 
for the coming of the Kingdom. It is obvious that this 
subject was one of the essentials in the teaching of 
Jesus. 

Its Meaning What does the term mean ? In the prayer Jesus 

taught his disciples we find his thought expressed in his 
own words: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on 

120 



JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

earth as it is in heaven." The Kingdom is composed 
of persons who do the will of God on earth. It is 
an individual as well as a social conception; it is an 
inner as well as an outer fact. It is not outer in the 
sense of any particular political, economic, or social 
organization; it is outer only in the sense that there is 
nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. All outer 
systems are to be gradually transformed by the working 
of the inner rule of God in the individual soul, as the 
leaven leavens the whole lump. It does not come with 
observation. To the Pharisees Jesus said: "The king- 
dom of God is in the midst of you" (Luke 17: 21, 
margin) or, "within you," with the second reading of 
which accords one of the new sayings of Jesus: "The 
kingdom of heaven is within you and whosoever shall 
know himself shall find it," reminding us also of the 
saying chosen by Socrates from the Delphic oracle as 
the motto of his life : "Know thyself." Jesus meant you 
would find the fact of the spiritual within, Socrates 
meant you would find your rational universality within ; 
or, in short, Jesus meant you would find God, and 
Socrates meant you would find man. Jesus was refuting 
the formalism of the Pharisees, Socrates the individ- 
ualism of the Sophists. So, by the Kingdom of Heaven 
Jesus meant the reign of God in the hearts of men. 
This is its quality. As such, it is an earthly pattern 
of a heavenly model, just as, in Plato's "Republic," 
justice in the state is an earthly imitation of a heavenly 
idea, the main difference being that the thought of Jesus 
is relatively more individual and personal, while Plato's 
is more social and impersonal. 

But the Kingdom of Heaven in the teaching of Jesus A Quality 
is not only a quality, it is also a place. To enter it ^^^^^^^ 
with only one eye is preferable to being cast into 

121 



the Kingdom 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

Gehenna with two eyes. One does not enter it by 
saying "Lord, Lord/' but by doing the will of the 
Heavenly Father. In it many who have come from 
the east and the west shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. In it, "the kingdom of their Father," the 
righteous shall shine forth as the sun. It is that 
heavenly place where the subjects of the Kingdom on 
earth shall be after death. 
The Magna Jesus took the Old Testament conception of a politi- 

S.^^-.°' ^^^ theocracy and enthroned it in the hearts of individ- 
uals, who in turn should rectify the abuses of human 
society. The Sermon on the Mount is the Magna 
Charta of the Kingdom of Heaven. In it Jesus pro- 
nounced blessings on certain classes of people not com- 
monly regarded as blessed by the great ones of earth ; 
called his disciples salt of the earth and light of the 
world; described himself not as destroying but ful- 
filling; illustrated this principle in the eight cases of 
murder, adultery, forswearing, retaliation, hating the 
enemy, alms-giving, prayer, and fasting, showing in 
each case how the righteousness necessary for enter- 
ing the Kingdom exceeded that of the scribes and 
Pharisees; gave instruction concerning the heavenly 
treasure, judging, seeking, and finding; stated the 
Golden Rule; contrasted the wide and narrow gate; 
warned against false prophets ; and contrasted the wise 
and foolish man. Each one of these subjects has its 
striking social significance in the mind of Jesus. One 
might regard forswearing and prayer as strictly in- 
dividual matters, but in the one case Jesus introduces 
the "Yea" and "Nay" of social communication, and in 
the other the social safeguard of forgiving each other's 
trespasses. Thus the Sermon on the Mount exhibits 
the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven in its inner 

m 



JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

aspect of righteousness and its outer aspect of cor- 
responding social relations. 

The Kingdom of Heaven, as viewed by Jesus, has Contrasts 
certain striking contrasts with the Reign of the Messiah, ^}^ Scribal 
as viewed by the scribes and others. In fact, the one 
great temptation of Jesus was to be the kind of Messiah 
his contemporaries were expecting, and so to win ac- 
ceptance. They looked for a Messiah who would serve 
himself physically by his great power, win his people 
by a supernatural sign, and establish his temporal reign 
on earth over all peoples. But he chose a Messiahship 
of service to others rather than self, winning allegiance 
by personal rather than super-physical means, and 
establishing a spiritual reign in the hearts of his fol- 
lowers. After the feeding of the five thousand Jesus 
perceived the people would make him a king by force 
and withdrew alone into the mountain, the place of 
victory, with no disciple to urge him to yield. Even 
James and John wanted places at his right and left 
hand. On Palm Sunday the people fatuously cried out 
blessing on the coming kingdom of their father David. 
Even after the resurrection the disciples still obtusely 
ask about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel 
(Acts 1 : 6). So was he beset and tempted both before, 
during, and after his ministry by the material and 
temporal views of his own people. In contrast his 
Kingdom was spiritual, inner, non-political, non-Jewish, 
universal, the filial companionship in all things of man 
and God. 

We may properly wonder that Jesus is the trans- jesus Gave 
forming aeent of society without havinsr eiven any * Social 

• 1 1 , i 1-1 i-1 X-.1 1 Conscience, 

social system ; that he did not, like Plato, arrange the ^^^ ^ Social 

classes of men in order of philosophic rulers, patriotic System 

defenders, and menial workers in the state; that he 

J23 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

never forbade war in so many terms, but drew one 
of his illustrations from a king's council of war; that 
he used such practices as selling into slavery, self- 
mutilation, and casting into prison for debt as illustra- 
tions, without condemning the practices themselves; 
that he would have the will of God done on earth with- 
out specifying the resulting social program; that he 
himself, so far from being a king, would not serve as 
arbitrator in the matter of an inheritance; that he did 
not tell the soldiers to lay down their arms; that he 
did not tell the slave-owners to free their slaves; that 
he did not propose improved imperial legislation for 
the province of Palestine; that in no sense was he a 
social agitator. Second thought on these matters re- 
veals the surpassing wisdom of Jesus as a social re- 
former. He did not care for the machinery of society, 
he would only make men perfect in love to God and 
man, and these perfected men would salt the earth and 
light the world, in whatever age and under whatever 
social conditions. Jesus gave a spirit of love and serv- 
ice and left systems to his followers of every age. This 
makes his teaching of universal application, while that 
of Plato, his close competitor in the field of theoretical 
social reconstruction, is mainly local. Jesus taught a 
way of life for any system, and walked in it himself. 
Our wonder passes and we cease to be surprised that 
in the name of Jesus nations like the Argentine and 
Chile have made perpetual peace; that war is being 
internationally attacked as a mode of settling national 
disputes; that first slaves, then serfs, and now peons 
are being freed ; that enlightenment has spread, democ- 
racies have triumphed, women and children have had 
their hours of labor lightened, the daily bread has been 
made more pure and wholesome, preventive medicine 

124 



vidual and 
Social 



JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

is emphasized; that debtors are no longer cast into 
prison; that inheritance legislation is enacted; that 
capital and labor approach each other; and that Jesus 
is becoming King of kings and Lord of lords. 

The principle of Jesus is, regenerate the individual, Thelndi 
and regenerated individuals v^^ill regenerate society. 
Those who miss this second emphasis in Jesus fail to Gospel 
note the significance of his teaching about saying 
"Lord" and not doing as the Lord says. He improves 
individuals by dynamic connection with God; these he 
leaves to improve their own physical and social en- 
vironment. His prayer was not that his disciples should 
be taken out of the world — of which they were the 
salt, and the light, and the leaven — but that they should 
be kept from evil. It is the individual in society he 
reaches. His social gospel is the immediate and neces- 
sary consequence of his individual gospel. 



I2B 



STUDY XII 



The Question 



Foreign 
Associations 
of His Infancy 



John's View 



Faith of a 
Roman 



An Alien 
Woman's Faith 



JESUS AND MISSIONS 

What was to be the extent of the Kingdom of heaven 
on earth? No limits whatsoever are finally put on its 
growth. This is the point of view from which to ap- 
proach the study of Jesus and missions. As heretofore, 
we will look first at his life, and then at his teachings, 
in relation to missions. 

Even his infancy is associated in story and prophecy 
with foreign personages, countries, and people. Wise 
men from the East come to worship him who was 
born king of the Jews. As an infant he is carried into 
Egypt. The righteous and devout Simeon saw in the 
infant Jesus the salvation of God "prepared before the 
face of all peoples ; a light for revelation to the Gentiles, 
and the glory of thy people Israel" (Luke 2: 31, 32). 

At the outset of the ministry John the Baptist, as 
reported by John the evangelist, strikes the universal 
note in the mission of Jesus : "Behold, the Lamb of God, 
that taketh away the sin of the world!" (John i: 29). 

Early in his ministry the faith of the Roman cen- 
turion caused Jesus to marvel and to turn and say to 
the multitude following him : "I have not found so great 
faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that 
many shall come from the east and the west, and shall 
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the 
kingdom of heaven." There were to be no racial or 
geographical boundaries to the Kingdom. 

After having given offense to the ceremonious Phari- 
sees in his teaching concerning inward cleansing, Jesus 
126 



JESUS AND MISSIONS 

withdrew into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, seeking 
retirement, but he could not be hid. He was besought 
by a Canaanitish woman, a Greek, a Syrophoenician 
by race, in behalf of her little daughter with an unclean 
spirit. Falling at his feet, she said: "Lord, help me." 
His reply was not a refusal, he did in fact heal her 
daughter, but he tested her faith with the reply: "Let 
the children first be filled : for it is not meet to take the 
children's bread and cast it to the dogs" (Mark 7: 27). 
Here an order of blessing is indicated, beginning with 
the children. There is no intimation that only the 
children will be fed. The healing of the afflicted daugh- 
ter is the best evidence that the Gospel is for those in 
need, not those of a certain race. 

The Samaritans were half Jews. So far from avoid- Labors in 
ing the route through Samaria in journeying from S^™^^^ 
Judaea to Galilee, as was customary by the Jews, Jesus 
felt an inward compulsion to pass through Samaria. 
He spoke living words to a sinning woman in Sychar, 
and at the request of the Samaritans abode there two 
days, and many believed on him. Again, in going up to 
Jerusalem, he passed through Samaria. One village 
did not receive him because of his evident destination, 
the Jews and Samaritans having no dealings with each 
other, but he, rejecting the counsel of "the sons of 
thunder," James and John, to bid fire to come down 
from heaven and consume the villagers, simply went 
on to another village. Once again, in journeying to 
Jerusalem along the borders of Samaria and Galilee, 
Jesus healed ten lepers, one of whom turned back from 
his mission to the priest to glorify God and give thanks 
to Jesus, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus signalized 
this act of gratitude with the words: "Were not the 
ten cleansed? but where are the nine? Were there 
127 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



The Temple 
for All Nations 



The Coming of 
the Greeks 



none found that returned to give glory to God, save 
this stranger?" (Luke 17: 17, 18). Not only by these 
three recorded instances of labor in Samaria but also 
by the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus illustrated 
the absence of race antipathy in religion. The Jews 
even accused him of being a Samaritan and having a 
devil. 

In his teaching following the cleansing of the Temple 
Jesus struck the universal note again when he asked: 
"Is it not written, *My house shall be called a house of 
prayer for all the nations?'" (Mark 11: 17). In fact, 
his soul was too steeped in the message of the prophets 
for him to fail to stress both the social and the world 
viewpoints. 

Jesus actually faced the Gentile world in vision when 
the Greeks presented themselves to Philip as interpre- 
ter with the request: "Sir, we would see Jesus" (John 
12: 21). What effect did this request have on Jesus? 
First, it caused him to realize that the hour of his 
sacrifice, which was also the hour of his glorification, 
had come. He saw the first fruitage from a foreign 
field that should be borne by the grain of wheat fallen 
into the ground and dying. By hating his life in this 
world he would keep it unto Life eternal. Those who 
serve him were to follow him in so doing, that they 
might both be with him and be honored by the Father. 
Then, at this prospect of his physical death, though 
leading to such fruitage, his soul was troubled, he ques- 
tioned whether he should pray for deliverance from it, 
only to check the rising question with the affirmation 
that for this very cause he had come to this hour, and 
then prayed that the Father would glorify His name. 
So mightily did the prospect of harvest in the Greek 
world affect his soul. 

128 



JESUS AND MISSIONS 

The idea of making converts was familiar to the Proselytes of 
disciples through the active zeal of the Pharisees in **^® Piian&ijes 
proselyting. Jesus pronounced woe upon the "scribes 
and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land 
to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye 
make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves" 
(Matt. 23: 15). Jesus never told his disciples to make 
no converts; on the contrary they were called to be 
"fishers of men." So in this passage he is not de- 
nouncing missionary activity as such, but its association 
with Pharisaic ends. Such a proselyte was worse off 
than the Pharisees themselves, having received only 
the husks of the Jewish religion and being without its 
antecedent roots in themselves. 

Jesus himself in fact sent forth two by two both the The Mission of 
twelve and the seventy. It was when he saw the multi- ^^ ® '^ 
tudes, and was moved with compassion for them, be- 
cause they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not 
having a shepherd, that he told his disciples the harvest 
was plenteous and the laborers few, and enjoined upon 
them to pray the Lord of the harvest that He would 
thrust forth laborers into His harvest. Then he called 
his twelve disciples, gave them authority to cast out 
unclean spirits and heal all manner of sickness, charged 
them in detail, and sent them forth two by two to preach 
and to heal. For others it was missionary work, for 
themselves it was both missionary and educative work. 

.When he set his face to go to Jerusalem, he sent The Mission of 
messengers before his face, in Samaria, to make ready *^® Seventy 
for him. This mode of work so developed that he 
"appointed seventy others, and sent them two and 
two before his face into every city and place, whither 
he himself was about to come" (Luke lo: i). These 
likewise he reminded of the plenteous harvest and few 
129 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

laborers and the need of prayer, and gave them their 
charge. The report of the seventy on their return is 
recorded, as well as the effect of this report on Jesus. 
They came back elated at their power to subject devils 
in the name of Jesus. There was danger of pride in 
spiritual power. Jesus reminded them that he had be- 
held Satan fallen, as lightning from heaven, perhaps 
at the Temptation, that they indeed had power over the 
enemy, but that they should rejoice, not because the 
spirits were subject unto them, but because their names 
were written in heaven. Thus he let them down by. 
lifting their thoughts up. Then Jesus himself, seeing 
the harvest gathered by the laborers he had sent forth, 
rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and thanked the Lord of 
heaven and earth that it was well-pleasing in His sight 
to hide these wonderful things, denied to prophets and 
kings, from the wise and understanding and to reveal 
them unto babes of meek and lowly hearts. Here was 
a missionary enterprise of considerable magnitude and 
full of instruction in the spirit of missions. 
The Charge to The charge given to the seventy is shorter and re- 
the Twelve peats that given to the twelve, though the twelve were 
apparently not of the seventy "others." The charge 
to the twelve restricts the field of operation to "the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. lo: 6); 
provides the text of the preaching: "The kingdom of 
heaven is at hand" (Matt. lo: 7) ; includes the service 
to all the needs of the body ; states the principle motiv- 
ating the work: "freely ye received, freely give" (Matt. 
10: 8) ; states also the principle of reward for service 
rendered: "The laborer is worthy of his food" (Matt. 
10: 10) — they were to go dependent not on themselves, 
but on those served; a worthy house was to be made 
headquarters while in any city or village; those not 

130 



JESUS AND MISSIONS 

hospitable to the messengers were to be testified against 
by shaking off the dust under the feet. Being as sheep 
in the midst of wolves, they were to be "wise as serpents 
and harmless as doves" (Matt. lo: i6). Persecution 
from men was to be expected, but it should be given 
them from the Father what to say in that hour. The 
Gospel would bring cruel family separations, and hatred 
to themselves, but endurance to the end was necessary 
for salvation. Persecution should lead not to resist- 
ance but to flight, for the Son of Man should come 
before the cities of Israel had been compassed. Such 
persecution of the members of the household of him 
whom his enemies had called Beelzebub was to be ex- 
pected. But they were to fear God, and have no other 
fear, for the truth shall be known, and the Father who 
marks the sparrow's fall has numbered the very hairs 
of the head. Confession before men is necessary if 
one would be confessed before the Father. Jesus re- 
turns to the idea of the family divisions that will result 
from the sword of the Gospel, and requires the sub- 
ordination of family ties to love of Jesus himself. His 
last thought is the sense of unity of himself with his 
messengers and with the Father: "He that receiveth 
you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth 
him that sent me" (Matt, lo: 40). The detail of this 
charge indicates the thoroughness with which Jesus 
planned out the first experience of the twelve as mis- 
sionaries. There is no additional point in the charge 
to the seventy. 

The concluding idea in the charge that Jesus was jesus Was 
sending them even as he himself was sent, is a familiar Himself Sent 
one in the gospels. No less than fifty-three times Jesus 
is described by himself or others in the four gospels as 
having been sent. Both the origin and the spread of 
131 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 

the Christian religion is in the sense of mission. Jesus 
came on a mission from the Father; he called others 
to be with him a while, until they were ready for him 
to send them on the same mission. It is of the essence 
of the love of God for the world that Jesus should be 
sent and should send. 
His Missionary If we turn from his missionary life and his guidance 
Teachings q£ missionary activities to his specific teachings, there 

is a surprising amount of evidence that the whole world 
was in his thought and plan. "The field is the world," 
he said, interpreting the parable of the tares in the 
field (Matt. 13: 38). The whole of the three measures 
of meal is to be leavened. The least of all seeds is 
to become the greatest of all trees. 

He recalled two prophetic mercies to foreigners: 
in the long famine over all the land of Israel, Elijah 
was sent only to the widow in Zarephath, in the land 
of Sidon; and of all the lepers in Israel in the time 
of Elisha, only Naaman, the Syrian, was cleansed. 
Such illustrations incited his fellow-citizens in Naza- 
reth to wrath. 

His disciples he regarded as the salt of the earth, 
the light of the world, not of Israel only, and this con- 
ception is expressed near the outset of his ministry in 
the Sermon on the Mount. 

In defending the gracious act of the woman in anoint- 
ing his head with an alabaster cruse of exceeding 
precious ointment in the house of Simon the leper in 
Bethany against the indignant criticism of the disci- 
ples at such "waste," he said in part: "Wheresoever 
this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that 
also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of 
for a memorial of her" (Matt. 26: 13). 

The twelve apostles on their mission were to be 
132 



JESUS AND MISSIONS 

brought before governors and kings for a testimony 
to them and to the Gentiles. In harmony with this 
idea, he told the chief priests and the elders that the 
Kingdom of God should be taken away from them and 
given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 

In the parable of the slighted invitation, the king 
bids his servants go unto the partings of the highways, 
and bid to the marriage feast as many as they should 
find. In answering the question of the disciples con- 
cerning the end of the world, he said: "And these 
good tidings of the kingdom shall be preached in the 
whole world [Gr. inhabited earth] for a testimony 
unto all the nations'' (Matt. 24: 14). Likewise in 
the judgment scene there shall be gathered before the 
Son of man "all the nations." 

To the Pharisees he said plainly that he had other 
sheep, not of his fold, whom also he must bring, who 
should hear his voice, and there should be one flock, 
one shepherd. Again he taught, signifying by what 
manner of death he should die, that, if he should be 
lifted up from the earth, he would draw all men unto 
himself. He came not to judge the world, but to save 
the world. The world is to know that he loves the 
Father, the world is to believe that the Father sent 
him. As it was into the world the Father sent him, 
so it was into the world that he sent his witnesses. 

It is thoroughly in keeping with these universal mis- The Great 
sionary conceptions that the risen Christ should give Commission 
the great commission, with its four universals, to the 
eleven disciples, claiming all authority, sending them 
to all nations, to teach them all his commands, and 
promising his presence all the days until the end. 
Finally, the risen and ascending Christ speaks to his 
chosen apostles: "Ye shall be my witnesses both in 
133 



MODERN PROBLEMS AS JESUS SAW THEM 



The In- 
spiration of 
Missionaries 



Temporary 
Limits 



Urging of 
Social and 
Universal 
in Missions 



Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts i: 8). 

In the clarity and the power of all these words of 
mission in the good tidings brought by Jesus, the souls 
of all missionaries from St. Paul till now have been 
inspired and upheld. Followers of Jesus have no doubt 
about it — his Gospel is for all. So it was intended and 
so the centuries have proven it to be. 

Such is the unlimited extent of the Kingdom as 
indicated by the missionary sweep of the life and 
teachings of Jesus. The limits he set to the field of 
labor were evidently temporary. "Go not into any 
way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of 
the Samaritans" (Matt. lo: 5), words spoken to the 
twelve apostles; "I was not sent but unto the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15: 24), words 
spoken to the Canaanitish woman ; these limitations are 
evidently transitory. The field of the twelve was 
doubtless limited that their experience might prove 
most successful and educative. That their first field 
was limited for them shows they might naturally have 
entertained the idea of a wider service. The Syro- 
phoenician mother had her faith tested. It was only 
"first," not exclusively, that the children were to be fed. 
And she received her boon. 

At this point the social aspect of the Gospel becomes 
universal. Since the days of the life and teachings 
of Jesus, the history of man has had to record mainly 
the gradual increase of his social leaven. The mean- 
ingful thing in life viewed historically is the steady 
perfecting of humanity after the pattern of divinity. 
The rule of man is growing into the rule of God. 
Men are becoming brothers in mutual service, children 
of a common Father, members of one family. 
134 



JESUS AND MISSIONS 

At no time is this clearer than at the present moment The Present 
when the world is at war, testing whether righteous- World-struggle 
ness and justice between nations are to prevail now 
or must yet wait a while. They will prevail in the end. 
Man's wrath, even if victorious, can but delay their 
ultimate triumph. For any government opposing these 
ideas there is bound to be downfall, not world-power, 
later, if not sooner. It is already written in the record 
of divine and human nature what the end is to be — 
that liberty and justice are to prevail, though the time 
of this coming is hidden. Human society may delay, 
but not thwart, its destiny. Millions of witnesses to 
the truth of God and man are now, in Colonel Roose- 
velt's phrase, "paying with their bodies for the desires 
of their souls." Other millions are ready to do the 
same. It is God's fight against the prince of this world. 

A modern prophet,^ writing under the strain of the 
world-war, with a keen sense of abiding realities, 
speaks thus of the final outcome: "I conceive myself 
to be thinking as the world thinks, and if I find no great 
facts, I find a hundred little indications to reassure me 
that God comes. Even those who have neither the 
imagination nor the faith to apprehend God as a reality 
will, I think, realize presently that the Kingdom of 
God over a world-wide system of republican States is 
the only possible formula under which we may hope to 
unify and save mankind." 



H. G. Wells, "Italy, France, and Britain at War." 



135 



A FEW SUGGESTED REFERENCES 

Harnack, a., "What Is Christianity?" Tr., T. B. 
Saunders. Lectures given in the University of 
Berlin. 

Hastings, Jas., Ed., "A Dictionary of Christ and the 
Gospels." 2 Vols. An invaluable aid, containing 
articles on every important topic in the gospels. 

HiLLis^ N. D., "The Influence of Christ in Modern 
Life." By the pastor of Plymouth Church, Brook- 
lyn. 

Hyde, W. D., "From Epicurus to Christ." Popular 
studies in five philosophies of life by the President 
of Bowdoin College. 

Jenks, J. W., "The Social Significance of the Teach- 
ings of Jesus." Arranged as a text for daily study 
for twelve weeks. 

Kent, C. F., "The Social Teachings of the Prophets 
and Jesus." Shows that the prophetic founders of 
Judaism and Jesus were preeminently social teach- 
ers. 

Mathews, Shailer, "The Social Teaching of Jesus." 
One of the standard texts. 

Montgomery, H. E,, "Christ's Social Remedies." 
Makes applications of the teachings of Jesus to 
present problems. 

Peabody, F. G., "Jesus Christ and the Social Question." 
A thorough and reverent examination of the teach- 
ings of Jesus in relation to modern social problems. 

Rauschenbusch, Walter, "The Social Principles of 
Jesus." Arranged for daily study, with weekly 
comment for twelve weeks. 
136 



A FEW SUGGESTED REFERENCES 

RosADi, G., "The Trial of Jesus." Ed., Dr. Emil Reich. 
A brilHant review of the life and teaching of Jesus 
in the first hundred pages. 

Simpson, P. C, "The Fact of Christ." Lectures by a 
Glasgow minister, mainly on the Gospel for the 
individual. 

Speer, R. E., "The Principles of Jesus." Interpreta- 
tions by an eminent student leader. 

Stevens, G. B., "The Teaching of Jesus." A sys- 
tematic exposition. 

Thoms, C. S., "The Working Man's Christ." A simple 
and effective presentation. 

Vaughan, Bernard, Father, S. J., "Socialism from the 
Christian Standpoint." Ten conferences opposing 
socialism as the settlement of the social question. 



137 



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